Prosecutors will buy guns with ‘lower prices’

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Judges and prosecutors will soon be able to buy firearms at knock down prices, in a move aimed at increasing their security conditions in the aftermath of the killing of a prosecutor by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin announced yesterday.

“We discussed this issue yesterday at the Cabinet meeting. We are launching the process by applying to the defense ministry. We will provide guns produced by the Machinery and Chemical Industry Corporation to our judges and prosecutors at affordable price … The prices of guns [for judges and prosecutors] will be one third of the market price,” Ergin said in a television interview on private news channel NTV. Public prosecutor Murat Uzun was shot dead in the eastern province of Tunceli’s Ovacık district on Sept. 19, with the PKK claiming responsibility for the attack. The incident has caused some to argue that judges and prosecutors should be armed more comprehensively. A number of reports after the attack on Uzun claimed the houses and offices of judges and prosecutors lacked adequate security and police protection, and said the justice ministry did not provide enough guns for them. However, Ergin said that an initiative to increase the security of judges and prosecutors’ houses had been launched before Uzun was killed, adding that security cameras would start to work within 15 to 20 days