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Prosecutor dies after Turkey hostage standoff

An ambulance arrives during a clash with Turkish special force in Istanbul on March 31, 2015 at the courthouse where a Turkish prosecutor was taken hostage by an armed group (AFP photo).

A prosecutor, who had been badly wounded in a hostage drama in the Turkish city of Istanbul, has succumbed to his injuries.

Istanbul prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz sustained the injury after security forces launched an operation to end the six-hour-long standoff. 

The prosecutor had been immediately hospitalized after being severely wounded, but both men who had held him hostage were killed, Istanbul security director Selami Altinok said on the Tuesday hostage drama.

Picture posted on the Internet by the left-wing organization, the DHKP-C, shows an alleged gunman from the DHKP-C holding a gun to the head of prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz in Istanbul on March 31, 2015. (AFP photo)

Earlier in the day, members of Turkey’s Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) abducted the prosecutor probing the death of the youngest victim of the 2013 mass anti-government protests inside a courthouse in the city.

DHKP-C gunmen raided the sixth floor of the Caglayan courthouse, and took Kiraz hostage. Gunshots were also heard at the building.

Kiraz was investigating the killing of Berkin Elvan, who died on March 11, 2014 after spending 269 days in a coma due to injuries inflicted by police in early summer 2013. Elvan was on his way to buy bread when he was caught up in a street protest in Istanbul’s Okmeydani neighborhood, in June 2013.

His family blames the then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is currently the country’s president, for their son’s death.

HN/MHB/AS


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