The murder of Hrant Dink was planned by a bigger network than just the gang that is currently on trial, editor-in-chief of 'Agos' Armenian-Turkish bilingual Etyen Mahcupyan stated in an interview to Der Spiegel German newspaper. He said, a number of police officers knew what was going to happen. But they didn't prevent the murder of Dink. "Critics have accused the authorities of failing to act on reports of a plot to kill Dink. Two of the suspects, Yasin Hayal and Erhan Tuncel, even claim they were working for the security forces. The current case is seen as an important test of whether the Turkish judiciary is capable of investigating claims of official negligence," Der Spiegel writes.

According to the editor-in-chief of 'Agos' bilingual, the aim was probably to cause unrest in the election year with the intention of torpedoing Turkey's chances of joining the European Union, "Presumably a whole series of attacks was planned, but the public reaction was too strong to go ahead with them." "In the past the judges were usually afraid to take risks. None of them wanted to expose the links between the military, the government and the judiciary. But in this case there is the potential to really get to the bottom of things. The judges are flexible and are working with the lawyers," he underlined. Answering the question if he had received threats concerning his work, Etyen Mahcupyan said "not at the moment", but if it were politically desired then someone could find an old article and file charges, since he had already been put on trial for allegedly 'insulting state institutions'.