The presiding judge in the Hrant Dink murder trial has stated that while he personally cannot deny the murder was well-organized, the evidence submitted to the court was not sufficient to issue such a ruling.

Rüstem Eryılmaz, of the Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court, spoke with the Vatan daily on Thursday and responded to criticism of the court's Tuesday ruling in the five-year-long Dink murder case.
He said, “According to the evidence, there is no [illegal] organization [involved in the murder]. But we cannot say there is no organization involved in the case,” Eyılmaz said, according to a Today Zaman report.

“We acquitted the suspects of organized crime charges. This ruling does not mean that there was no organization involved. This means that there was not enough evidence to prove the actions of this organization,” the embattled judge said.

Noting that he and other judges of the court also think the Dink murder was not an ordinary one, he said there certainly is someone who instigated the murder, but they had no evidence to prove that.