Istanbul (CNN) -- Nearly five years to the day after a Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor was gunned down in broad daylight, a judge acquitted all 19 defendants in his trial of charges that they were members of an "armed terrorist organization." One defendant, Yasin Hayal, received a life sentence for conspiring in the planned killing of Hrant Dink, editor-in-chief of the Armenian-language newspaper "Agos." Prosecutors accused Hayal of purchasing the murder weapon, a 7.65 millimeter Turkish-produced handgun. Hayal was also accused of recruiting a 17-year old soccer player named Ogun Samast to use the gun to kill Dink. Another defendant, Erhan Tuncel, was cleared of charges in connection to the murder. Instead, he was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison for the 2004 bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in the Black Sea city of Trabzon.
@highlight
Some of the defendants were earlier convicted of conspiracy and murder
@highlight
A judge cleared them all Tuesday of being members of a terrorist group
@highlight
Hrant Dink was the editor of an Armenian-language newspaper
Surveillance cameras caught the convicted murderer, @placeholder, fleeing the scene wearing a white hat.