Detention warrants issued for senior PKK figures

MARDİN

The Mardin Chief Prosecutor’s Office issued a detention warrant on Dec. 13 against senior outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) figures Murat Karayılan and Duran Kalkan, as part of the investigation into the killing of Derik District Governor Muhammet Fatih Safitürk.   

Two women suspects in the case were also arrested and sent to prison after previously being released, Doğan News Agency reported.

The Mardin Chief Prosecutor’s Office issued a detention warrant against Karayılan and Duran on claims of “disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state,” “deliberate murder due to his duty in public service,” and “murdering with suppression, bombings or nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.” 

Safitürk succumbed to his injuries in hospital early on Nov. 11 following an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) attack in the Derik district of the southeastern province of Mardin. 

Safitürk, who was appointed to the post in September as a trustee following the ouster of the town’s democratically elected leaders, was wounded along with four others on Nov. 10 when PKK militants attacked the District Governor’s Office with hand-made explosives. 

The acting mayor of Derik in Mardin, Hakan Kafkas, was assigned to the Derik District Governor’s in place of Safitürk.