The assassination of Hrant Dink, chief editor of the Agos newspaper, was ordered by one of the members of Turkish mafia five months before, but the attempt failed.

In January 2007, five months before his death, the head of one of the Turkish criminal clans Ayvaz Korkmaz ordered to kill Hrant Dink for $70,000, Taraf daily reported.

The information was disclosed in Istanbul criminal court where Ayvaz Korkmaz and his criminal friends were standing a trial.

One of the defendants Metin Dogan said that a man named Ibrahim Guzel ordered the assassination of a journalist residing in Istanbul, but they refused to carry out the order for some reasons. Later, the head of Ulku Ocaklari nationalist organization of Malatia threatened them, saying Ibrahim’s order should be executed.

Dink’s lawyer Fethiye Cetin noted that she was not aware of these details before.