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Banned leftist group in Turkey takes prosecutor hostage

Members of a banned leftist group took a prosecutor hostage in his office Tuesday inside a courthouse in Istanbul, authorities said

Desmond Butler and Suzan Fraser (The Jakarta Post)
Istanbul
Tue, March 31, 2015

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Banned leftist group in Turkey takes prosecutor hostage

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embers of a banned leftist group took a prosecutor hostage in his office Tuesday inside a courthouse in Istanbul, authorities said. Police said negotiators were speaking to two militants in attempts to end the standoff.

Istanbul's police chief said no harm has come to the hostage or police.

"We are trying to resolve the issue without anyone being hurt," Selami Altunok said, adding that police negotiators and Umit Kocasakal, the head of the Istanbul Bar Association, are talking to the militants.

Earlier, the private Dogan news agency said some shots were fired during the incident.

Dogan said police special forces had entered the building, which was evacuated. It wasn't clear how the assailants sneaked the arms into the courthouse.

The state-run Anadolu Agency and state television, TRT, identified the prosecutor as Mehmet Selim Kiraz. He is the prosecutor investigating the death of a teenager who was hit by a police gas canister fired during nationwide anti-government protests in 2013.

A website close to the left-wing DHKP-C group said that militants from the banned organization had taken the prosecutor hostage at midday and had given authorities three hours to meet five demands, including forcing policemen held responsible for the teenager's killing to confess to the death.

The group also demanded that the policemen be tried by "peoples' courts" and for court officials to drop prosecutions or investigations against people who took part in protests denouncing the boy's death. The website showed a picture of someone holding a gun to a man's head with posters from the group in the background.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Orhan Kapici confirmed that the incident was related to Kiraz's investigation into the boy's death.

The DHKP-C, which seeks a socialist state, is considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union.

The group has carried out sporadic attacks, including a suicide bombing on the US Embassy in 2013 that killed a security guard. The group was more active in the 1970s. (*****)

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