Turkish prosecutor taken hostage by terror group dies after courthouse shootout
Updated: A Turkish prosecutor died after two gunmen disguised as lawyers took him hostage in an Istanbul courthouse on Tuesday. The members of a terrorist group threatened to kill him if an investigation was not handled to their satisfaction, authorities said.
Both gunmen were killed following a shootout with special forces.
Istandbul’s police chief, Selami Altinok, said authorities had to take action when they heard shots in the office where Mehmet Selim Kiraz was being held, reports Reuters.
Officials initially tried to negotiate with the two hostage-takers, who were are affiliated with the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front, known as DHKP-C, Reuters reported earlier. The group published a photo showing Kiraz with a gun to his head.
“We were on the sixth floor. A black-haired man wearing a suit entered the prosecutor’s room and fired a gun three times,” courthouse worker Mehmet Hasan Kaplan told the news agency. He said the attackers claimed to have explosives.
DHKP-C’s demands focus on an investigation led by Kiraz into the death last year of Berkin Elvan, 15. The teen had been in a coma for nine months before that after suffering a head wound in anti-government protests.
The group’s website says it wants the police officer it deems responsible for Elvan’s death to confess publicly; “people’s court” trials of all officers involved; and charges against protesters to be dropped, the article explains.
“We are trying to bring the incident to an end without anyone getting hurt,” Altinok, told reporters earlier in the day.
Updated at 4:15 p.m. to include and accord with subsequent Reuters article.
