A court in Turkey has sentenced several former police chiefs and security officials to life in prison in the 2007 murder of Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish journalist of Armenian origin whose killing became a rallying cry for the country’s Armenian minority. 

Dink, the 52-year-old editor of the Armenian-Turkish newspaper Agos, was gunned down in broad daylight on a crowded Istanbul street after leaving his office. The shooter, Omar Samast, was an unemployed 17-year-old who said he viewed Dink as a traitor to Turkey. Samast was sentenced in 2011 to nearly 23 years in prison. 

Photos emerged showing Samast posing with police officers after the murder, raising questions of possible collusion. At the time, the Sabah daily newspaper charged that Samast, who had confessed to Dink’s murder, was receiving “hero treatment” from Turkish authorities. 

The state-owned Anadolu news agency reported that the court on Friday concluded that Dink’s murder was "in line with the objectives” of the network run by Fethullah Gulen, who the government accuses of organizing the failed 2016 coup. Gulen, who has lived in self-imposed exile in rural Pennsylvania since 1999, denies involvement.