Turkey to bury prosecutor killed in bloody hostage drama

Istanbul: Turkey was Wednesday to bury the senior Istanbul prosecutor who was killed after being held at his offices by leftist militants in a hostage drama that shocked the country.

Police late on Tuesday launched an operation to free Mehmet Selim Kiraz after an hours-long standoff with his captors but the official died shortly after arriving at hospital. Both his captors, two men in their 20s affiliated to the outlawed Marxist Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C), were killed in the police operation.

A ceremony to remember Kiraz was to take place outside the courthouse and his funeral would then be held at the Eyup Sultan Mosque in Istanbul attended by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, the official Anatolia news agency said.

"The day we went into darkness," said the daily Cumhuriyet after a day, which also saw Turkey's worst nationwide power cut in 15 years. "Black Tuesday," said the Hurriyet daily.

Kiraz had been leading a hotly-politicised investigation 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 in the summer of 2013.

So far no-one has been brought to trial for the crime and the captors demanded that Kiraz hand over the names of the suspects and force them to confess. Publishing photos of the prosecutor with his mouth bound and a gun to his head, they threatened to kill him if their demands were not met.

"As a nation we see this attack not only an attack against our prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz, but also an attack against the Turkish judiciary, Turkish democracy and all the citizens in Turkey," said Davutoglu.

"No one should doubt that we will continue to fight against terrorism with determination and take whatever steps necessary," he added.

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. The circumstances of the police operation were not immediately clear but Istanbul police said it was launched after they heard gunshots.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz vehemently denied there was any link between the hostage drama and the power cut, after opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu claimed the power could have been cut intentionally to assist the captors.

The drama came at time of intensifying political tensions in Turkey ahead of June 7 legislative elections. Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is seeking a landslide victory, which would allow him to change the constitution to boost the powers of the presidency, which he assumed in 2014 after over a decade as prime minister.