Istanbul Justice Palace siege
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| Istanbul Justice Palace siege | |
|---|---|
 Istanbul Justice Palace | |
| Location | Şişli, Istanbul |
| Date | 31 March 2015 12:30 pm - 9:00 pm |
Attack type | Hostage taking |
| Weapons | 7,65 mm firearms |
| Deaths | 3 (including 2 assailants) |
| Perpetrators | Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front |
| Assailant | Şafak Yayla Bahtiyar Doğruyol |
On 31 March 2015, a hostage crisis occurred in the Şişli district of Istanbul, Turkey, at the Istanbul Justice Palace. The public prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who conducted the investigation of the Berkin Elvan case, was taken hostage by the members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C). After the incident, the building was evacuated and security measures were taken by the police. Members of the organization gave a list of requests to the police while threatening to kill the prosecutor. In the incident that lasted about nine hours, Prosecutor Kiraz was killed by DHKP-C militants. The two attackers were also killed.
Perpetrators
Berkin Elvan was seriously injured when hit on the head by a tear-gas canister fired by a police officer on the morning of 16 June 2013 during the Gezi Park protests.[1][2] He remained in a coma until 11 March 2014 when he died. Several protests began in Turkey.[3] The public's sensitivity towards the Berkin Elvan case increased.[4] Although two and a half years passed from the incident, no result was achieved in the Berkin Elvan case. On 7 March, during a commemoration ceremony for Berkin, his father Sami Elvan said, "We still don't see Berkin's murderers around. Still Berkin's murderers continue their lives. But our child is not here. I want everyone to be following this case."[5]
Kiraz, the prosecutor appointed in September 2014, was the 5th prosecutor appointed to the investigation. The forensic report was included in the case file during Kiraz's term. It was written in the report that Berkin Elvan was injured as a result of a hard object hitting his head and died while he was being treated at the hospital.[6] In another report sent by the National Criminal Bureau, it was stated that there could be 3 suspect police officers based on the result of the photo examinations. The prosecutor asked for the information of the police officers working at the scene for the purpose of identification. The 3 suspects could not be identified, even after sending the IDs and photographs of the 21 police officers by the security forces. When the suspects could not be fully identified, the prosecutor sent the images to the Gendarmerie Criminelle.[7] Kiraz had also been dealing with some other Gezi Park protest cases since October 2014.
- Şafak Yayla (born 8 May 1991 in Zonguldak):[8][9][10] Yayla, who came to the Akyazı district of Sakarya by passing high school entrance exams, studied at Akyazı Anatolian High School for 4 years. Yayla studied for a year in a private school in Akyazı in the last year of high school and finished first in his class, winning a seat in the Istanbul University School of Law.[11][12][13] Yayla, who was detained while protesting the participation of the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the opening of the academic year in Istanbul University in 2011, stated that he was tortured in custody.[14] He was arrested in 2013 with the claim that he was carrying a bomb.[15] He had met the other suspect Bahtiyar Doğruyol while serving his sentence in the Tekirdağ F-type prison.[16][17][18] He was released in December 2014.[16][19][20]
- Bahtiyar Doğruyol
The prosecutor taken hostage
Mehmet Selim Kiraz, who was born in Siirt in 1969, studied at Mersin İmam Hatip School and completed his higher education in Istanbul University School of Law. Kiraz was appointed to Gaziosmanpaşa Public Prosecutor's Office from Osmaniye in 2010 with the Decree of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK). After working there for 4 years, Kiraz was appointed as the Istanbul Public Prosecutor with the decree of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors dated 11 June 2014.[21] As part of the division of labor organized by the Chief Public Prosecutor of Istanbul, he was given charge of the Office of Investigations. His wife was also a judge at the Istanbul Justice Palace, with whom he had two children.
Hostage-taking
DHKP-C militants Şafak Yayla and Bahtiyar Doğruyol came to the Istanbul Justice Palace with their lawyer robes and fake lawyer IDs and went inside without getting searched. The two militants entered the prosecutor's room and disabled the prosecutor who pressed the panic button. They locked the room from the inside. Security guards could not get into the locked room. The attackers who took the prosecutor hostage at 12:30 announced this at 12:36 via social media. Police teams, who came to the scene, began to negotiate with the attackers. There was a blockage in the talks when the militants asked for the police officers responsible for the murder of Berkin Elvan to be brought there.
Temporary broadcasting ban was ordered by the Prime Minister's office around 4:00 pm on the grounds of enforcing national security and public order.[22]
The Special Operation Teams started an operation around 8:30 pm. After the operation organized by the Special Operation Teams, the two DHKP-C militants died and the prosecutor was seriously injured.[23][24] According to another claim, the prosecutor had died by the time the operation ended.[25]
