Istanbul police arrest militant who entered courthouse in police uniform

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

An outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front (DHKP-C) member has been arrested after he was seen entering a courthouse in Istanbul’s Asian side while wearing a police uniform.

The man identified as Cemil K., was arrested on Sept. 20 when Istanbul Police Department Counterterrorism Unit officers detained him upon intelligence that the outlawed organization was readying for armed attacks on courthouses.

He was detained in a police operation in the Gebze district of the northwestern province of Kocaeli on Sept. 18 after police officers detected him on closed-circuit television (CCTV) at the Anadolu Courthouse in Istanbul’s Kartal district over intelligence, with Cemil K. seen entering the courthouse on Sept. 16.

CCTV footage showed Cemil K. walking inside the courthouse disguised as a police officer and leaving the building in a taxi.

The police studied the CCTVs at the courthouse, and also street camera recordings for the duration of his taxi ride.

A debate was sparked over courthouse security after two militants from the DHKP-C took Istanbul prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz hostage at a courthouse in Istanbul’s Çağlayan neighborhood on Mar. 31. The hours-long hostage drama left Kiraz and the two militants dead.

Security measures had been heightened at the time, and security personnel at courthouses began searching lawyers, judges and prosecutors with x-ray devices and metal detectors, a practice that was rejected by judicial personnel.