A penal court in Sisli, central Istanbul, has punished 19-year old Ridvan Dogan, who sent a threatening email to the Agos newspaper after the murder of its editor Hrant Dink, with a two-year suspended sentence.

The court took into account the fact that the high school student had no police record, had expressed his regrets and had convinced the court that he would not commit any other crimes. He will be supervised for two years.

"I did not read the message" 

Dogan has claimed that he sent an email message that came to him directly to the Agos newspaper without reading it:

“On the day an email entitled ‘Apologise to the Turks’ came. Without reading it, I sent it to the address that was given. I learnt the contents of the email after event happened. I regret it. If I had not been in prison, I would be in school now. I want to continue with school. I have learned my lesson.”

In his statement he apologised to the newspaper. While Agos lawyers welcomed the expressions of regret, they added that they found it hard to believe that a high school student sent an email on without reading it. They also said that some employees of Agos had had to leave their jobs because of this and similar threats. (TK/AG)

 

* This article has used information from the ntvmsnbc website.