Six arrested in assassination attempt against Turkish ex-minister

ANKARA - Doğan News Agency

Türk was Justice Minister during the ‘Return to Life’ operations. AP photo

An Ankara court ordered the arrest yesterday of six alleged members of the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) in connection with a foiled assassination attempt against former Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk.

Anti-terror police from the Ankara Police Department thwarted the plot to kill the former minister on March 27, taking seven suspects into custody in Ankara while another two suspects were detained in Istanbul. The nine detainees were then transferred to the Ankara courthouse where six of them were arrested yesterday.

Türk has been a target since he presided over the controversial “Hayata Dönüş” (Return to Life) operations at several prisons during his tenure as justice minister in 2000. Some 32 inmates and two troops died in the operation.