A Turkish court on Wednesday ordered the arrest of a public prosecutor on charges of attempted murder over the shooting of a female judge at an İstanbul courthouse, the state-run TRT broadcaster reported, citing court documents.
Judge Aslı Kahraman, 45, was seriously wounded when prosecutor Muhammet Çağatay Kılıçaslan, 33, opened fire at the courthouse on İstanbul’s Asian side on Tuesday, hitting her in the groin.
Court documents said the pair had been romantically involved but not married, as initially reported.
Kılıçaslan was about to fire again but was stopped by a man who was serving tea, a convict out on day release who was working at the court, media reports said.
The prosecutor was charged with attempted murder and put in pretrial detention, TRT said.
In the referral letter prosecutors said Kılıçaslan had sent photographs and threatening messages to Kahraman, according to the broadcaster.
Turkish media reports said Kılıçaslan had worked for several years in an office for the prevention of violence against women, which handles gender‑based violence cases.
The attack drew sharp condemnation from women’s rights groups, which say gender violence has risen since Ankara withdrew from the Istanbul Convention in 2021 — an international treaty requiring signatories to promulgate laws aimed at preventing and prosecuting violence against women.
According to figures from the We Will Stop Femicide advocacy group, 294 women were killed by men in 2025 and 297 women were found dead under suspicious circumstances.
Of those killed, 35 percent were murdered by their husbands, and 57 percent were killed with a firearm.
© Agence France-Presse