Police say Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who was investigating killing of 15-year-old protester Berkin Elvan last year, was seriously injured and died in hospital

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

A senior Turkish prosecutor and two radical leftist militants who were holding him hostage at an Istanbul courthouse have died after special forces moved to bring the six-hour siege to an end on Tuesday evening.

Mehmet Selim Kiraz had been held in his office by two members of a banned Turkish Marxist group who put a gun to his head and threatened to kill him if their demands were not met.



Following a tense standoff on a day when Turkey’s largest city also suffered a major power cut, authorities said that the operation had been launched when gunfire was heard in their mobile phone communications with the captors.



Six hours after the start of the siege, explosions and gunfire could be heard coming from the building and smoke billowed from a window.

A few minutes later, two ambulances, sirens wailing, raced away from the scene.

Istanbul police chief Selami Altinok told reporters outside the courthouse that the two hostage takers had been killed. Kiraz was taken to hospital but succumbed to his wounds, doctors said in a statement.

“When he arrived he had gunshot wounds both to his head and his chest. His breathing and heart had stopped,” they added.

The hostage-taking was claimed by the radical Marxist Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

The hostage takers’ demands were reported to relate to an investigation being led by Kiraz into 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 centred around Istanbul’s Gezi Park in the summer of 2013.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arriving on a visit to Romania, said the attackers had entered the courthouse disguised in legal robes.



He said Kiraz had suffered three gunshots to the head and two to his body, without elaborating further.

“This is not something to be taken lightly,” said Erdogan.

The DHKP-C earlier published pictures showing one of the militants – his face concealed by a scarf with the group’s red and yellow insignia – holding a gun to Kiraz’s head.

They had also plastered their flags and posters on the walls of his office located on the fifth floor of the courthouse building.

The group had given an afternoon deadline for the prosecutor to identify the police officers who they say were behind the killing of Elvan and force them to make a “live confession” or he would be shot.

Kiraz, wearing a suit and tie, was made to stare into the camera as the militant put his hand round his chin. His mouth was bound with duct tape.

A media blackout on reporting of the standoff had been implemented by the Turkish television watchdog, forcing Turkish television channels to cut the live transmissions of the incident.

Elvan succumbed to injuries sustained when he was hit by a tear gas canister fired by police in mass protests in the early summer of 2013 against the government of Erdogan, who was then premier.



Activists and others have long accused the authorities of covering up the circumstances of the 15-year-old’s death, while no police officer has been brought to trial over the case, despite the investigation.

In a phone call with opposition lawmaker Huseyin Aygun, Elvan’s father Sami asked that there be no more bloodshed, Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper reported.

He said: “My son died but I don’t want any other person to die. The prosecutor must be released. Blood cannot be washed away with blood.”

Berkin Elvan funeral protests in Turkey – in pictures Read more

The DHKP-C is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States.

It claimed an attempted grenade attack in January on police guarding the Dolmabahce palace in Istanbul, where the prime minister has his office in the city, saying it was revenge for Elvan’s killing.

It also claimed a suicide attack in Istanbul later that month, but in a bizarre sequence of events then withdrew the claim, saying it had made a mistake.

The hostage-taking on Tuesday coincided with the worst power cut Turkey has seen for 15 years, which has caused chaos in Istanbul.

There was no indication of a link between the two events although some reports said the armed radicals had been able to enter the courthouse as the metal detectors were not working due to the electricity outage.

Erdogan had sparked an outcry after he called Elvan a thug with links to a “terrorist organisation” and encouraged his supporters at a rally to boo the teenager’s mother.

• The subheading on this article was amended on 1 April 2015. An earlier version described Berkin Elvan as a protester.