Turkish Lawyers Oppose Personal Checks at Courts After Hostage Crisis

After the Tuesday hostage crisis in Istanbul, Turkish authorities started to conduct personal searches at court entrances; lawyers, however, did not like the idea and decided to protest against it.

ANKARA (Sputnik) – The union of Turkish lawyers is filing an official complaint with the authorities to protest against personal search at court entrances introduced after the Tuesday hostage standoff in Istanbul, the union's President Metin Feyzioglu said Friday.

On Tuesday, two gunmen shot Turkish prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz after holding him hostage at a courthouse in Istanbul for about six hours. Both terrorists were killed in the rescue operation. The prosecutor died in a hospital.

"We will file complaints against every security guard participating in searches of lawyers and on all those who ordered them to treat lawyers differently at the entrances to courthouses," Feyzioglu said in a statement.

The gunmen who killed Kiraz were identified as members of the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C).

Media reports suggested that the prosecutor was killed following an order from DHKP-C leader Huseyin Fevzi Tekin who currently resides in Greece.