Turkey: 22 suspects detained after prosecutor dies in courthouse siege

stanbul Security Chief Selami Altinok, center-right, and Deputy Chief Prosecutor Orhan Kapici speak to the media outside the main courthouse in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, March 31. (Source: AP)

Turkish authorities on Webesday detained 22 suspected radical leftists in the southern city of Antalya, after a hostage siege on Tuesday in an Istanbul courthouse in which a senior prosecutor and his leftist captors were killed.

Two members of the DHKP-C took prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage at his offices on Tuesday. They said the group was avenging the killing of teenager Berkin Elvan, who died in March last year after spending 269 days in a coma from injuries inflicted by police in anti-government protests in the summer of 2013.

After receiving a tip-off, counter-terrorism police in morning raids detained 22 students, all of them linked to the outlawed Marxist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), the group behind yesterday’s drama.

Intelligence indicated that there could be similar incidents in Antalya in the coming days, the private Dogan agency reported.

A lawyer for the suspects told Dogan that the claims were baseless and the group was going to release a statement later in the day.

His captors, two men in their 20s, were killed by security forces in the rescue mission.

Kiraz, who was leading the investigation into Berkan’s killing, was freed in a police operation after an hours-long standoff with his captors, but died shortly after arriving at hospital.

Source:: Indian Express