Five arrested regarding killing of Dink in Istanbul

Istanbul's chief public prosecutor said on Wednesday that five people, including suspected killer Ogun Samast had so far been arrested in regard to the killing of Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.

Ogun Samast, 17, suspected killer of Hrant Dink, was arrested on charges of "being member of an armed organization to commit a criminal act" and "murder", prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin was quoted by the semi-official Anatolia news agency as saying.

Earlier, Samast had admitted that he killed Dink, who was shot dead in front of his office building in Istanbul last Friday, in a 4-page testimony. According to Samast, he was instructed by Yusuf Hayal, who was convicted in the bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in the Black Sea city of Trazbon in 2004.

Engin added that four other suspects, Yusuf Hayal, Ahmet Iskender, Ersin Yolcu and Zeynel Abidin Yavuz were arrested on charges of "forming an armed organization" and "inciting the killing".

However, Engin pointed out that "the fact that they have been formally arrested does not mean that a court case will be opened against them immediately."

"Prosecutors will investigate whether there are other persons or other organizations involved, whether there are any links to any political, ideological or separatist organizations," he noted.

On whether there are also other detainees regarding the killing of Dink, Engin said, "there are two other people under custody. There may be other detainees as well."

Only one day after Dink was shot dead, Samast was arrested in the northern province of Samsun and was sent to Istanbul to receive interrogation.

During the interrogation, Samast said that he would surrender to gendarme, even if he was not captured.

Dink, a 53-year-old Turkish citizen of Armenian descent had been convicted of insulting Turkey's identity over his comments on the alleged Armenian genocide by Ottoman Turks during World War I and received a six-month suspended sentence.

He had also received threat from nationalists who considered him as a traitor.

Turkey has denied that up to 1.5 million Armenians died as a result of systematic genocide during the Turkish Ottoman period between 1915 and 1923.