The trial of 18 people charged in connection with the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink got under way in Istanbul Monday with prosecutors seeking lengthy prison sentences for the alleged murderer and accomplices, according to dpa. Security was high around the court in Besiktas and the trial was closed to the media and the public because the alleged murderer, Ogun Samast, is under 18 years of age. Dink, 53, was shot dead outside the Istanbul office of his Agos newspaper in January. Samast was arrested soon after in the Black Sea town of Samsun where he reportedly confessed to the killing. Samast has been charged with murder, membership of a terrorist organization and carrying an unlicensed weapon and faces up to 42 years behind bars, if found guilty. The other 17 people on trial face a variety of charges including incitement to murder and forming a terrorist organization. Dink's murder sparked a wave of anger and shock across Turkey with tens of thousands of people attending his funeral in Istanbul. There were also nationalist counter-protests, especially in Samast's home town of Trabzon, against the way in which Dink's supporters waved banners reading "We are all Armenians."
