Epress.am News from Armenia
Ogün Samast, the hitman in the murder of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, said yesterday that he is not guilty, but that the guilty ones are those whose newspaper headlines stated that Dink was a traitor, reports Today’s Zaman.
The hitman’s remarks came in a letter he submitted on Monday to an İstanbul juvenile court where he is standing trial. “I am not guilty. The ones who are guilty are the newspaper headlines that portrayed Hrant Dink as a traitor. I got rid of the trash in my eye. Now let the ones who prepared those headlines think. Where are the ones who brought me to this point? I did not know about Agos. My veins were filled with ignorance then. I learned about Dink from newspaper headlines. And I sacrificed myself. … I am afraid of Yasin Hayal,” the letter read.
Samast was 17 at the time he shot Dink outside the office of the Agos daily, where Dink was the editor-in-chief, on Jan. 19, 2007. Hayal is also a prime suspect in the murder case of Dink. The hitman also stated in his letter that he first planned to punch Dink in the face when he met him first in front of Agos. “I would punch him twice, but I was confused. They sacrificed me,” he said.