JINHA

NEWS CENTER - Two membersof Turkey's Revolutionary People's Liberation Front (DHKC) took the Berkin Elvan case prosecutor hostage in Istanbul yesterday evening, with the demand that the perpetrators in the case be made public. The two DHKC members and the prosecutor were killed when police intervened.

DHKC members took prosecutor Mehmet SelimKiraz hostage at Istanbul's Çağlayan Courthouse at 3:36 p.m. yesterday. Their main demand was for the release of the names of the police officers responsible for the death of teenager Berkin Elvan in the Gezi Protests in 2013.

Police intervened late in the evening on the office on the 6^th floor of the courthouse, killing DHKCmembersŞafakYayla and BahtiyarDoğruyol. The prosecutordied from bullet wounds sustained in the clash while in intensive care at Florence Nightingale Hospital.

Berkin Elvan lost his life after he went out to buy bread one day in the Okmeydanı neighborhood. Police shot him in the head with a tear gas canister in June 2013, in the course of the Gezi protests. After struggling for life in a coma for 269 days, Berkin died. He was 15.

Last night, DHKC-affiliated social media accounts shared photographs of previously secret documents from the courthouse, including names and photographs of police officers. Other demands included the trial of police officers in a people's court and the dropping of charges against Berkin Elvan solidarity protestors.

The Prime Minister's office ordered a media blackoutduring the course of the event. Media on the scene say there was an explosion sound before the operation took place, which the government did not mention in their press release afterward. Police claimed they intervened when the sound of gunshots came from the room.

DHKC's online website and Twitter accounts, called Voice of the People TV (HalkınSesi TV), also went down yesterday evening. The last Tweet from an account affiliated withthe group said, "We love you, our people."

According to social media accounts, ŞafakYayla, one of the DHKC members slain in the courthouse,had been a law student at Istanbul University, one of Turkey's top universities.Turkey is known for legal impunity for police perpetrators of violence.

Police clashed with protestors yesterday evening in Berkin's native working-class Okmeydanı neighborhood.Berkin's father, Sami Elvan, said that he had taken part in the telephone conversation with the DHKC members and was sad to see the action end bloodily.

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