An unusual incident occurred yesterday in an Istanbul courthouse: a prosecutor entered the office of a judge, shot and wounded her, before he was taken down by a prisoner working in the building as part of his probation, according to Turkish media reports.
The incident took place at around 13:00 local time (11:00 CET) on 13 January at the Istanbul Regional Appeals Court located in the Kartal district, on the outskirts of the city’s Asian side. Prosecutor Muhammed Çağatay Kılıçarslan, 33 years old and stationed at the Anatolian Courthouse – also located in Kartal, about 2 km away – entered the building and went to the office of Judge Aslı Kahraman, 44 years old and a member of the 23rd Criminal Chamber, where an argument broke out between the two..
According to information published by the Turkish daily Milliyet, the prosecutor made a shot hitting the judge in the groin; after shooting her, Kılıçarslan was about to fire a second shot when Yakup Karadağ, an inmate of the Maltepe Open Prison who was working as a tea delivery man as part of an open regime, and who happened to be in the office at the time, rushed at the prosecutor and managed to pin him down, thus preventing a greater tragedy.
Kahraman was taken to a local hospital with an entry wound in the groin area, while the prosecutor was arrested at the scene. The initial investigation revealed that the two had previously worked together at a criminal court of first instance in the Anatolian Palace of Justice. Although the victim’s medical prognosis indicated that his life was not in danger, she had to undergo surgery to remove the bullet, after which she was subsequently discharged from the hospital.
Prosecutor and judge had a complicated romantic relationship
The Istanbul Bar Association issued a statement condemning the incident, stating that “the attempted murder of a judge by a prosecutor within the courtroom itself clearly demonstrates that violence is also generated in judicial institutions. The perpetrator should be imprisoned immediately and removed from office“.
According to the initial statement given by Kılıçarslan and contained in the prosecutor’s report, the perpetrator of the shooting and the victim had been in a relationship since September-October 2023, but tensions and problems had arisen between the couple due to differences in age and social status, the fact that the judge had a child from a previous marriage, and the suspect’s desire for the relationship to end in marriage, an idea that the victim did not share.
It has also emerged that the attacker fired two shots: one hit the judge, while the other hit the wall of the room and went through it, hitting the chair in the adjoining room of another judge, who fortunately was not in the room at the time. For now, the Istanbul prosecutor’s office assigned to this unbelievable incident has charged Kılıçarslan with attempted murder; the incident has also generated particular impact after it was revealed that the prosecutor who fired the shots had worked at the Office for the Prevention of Violence against Women between 2021 and 2022.
VOTE
EDITORIAL TEAM
🧿 About us
.
Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
…
📣 Your ADVERTISING on Hispanatolia
.
🤗 HELP US WITH A DONATION:
💗 Paypal
