A judge was shot and seriously wounded at an Istanbul courthouse by her public prosecutor ex-husband, who was stopped from firing again by a convict on day release.
ISTANBUL: A judge was shot and seriously wounded at a courthouse here on Tuesday by her public prosecutor ex-husband.
Judge Asli Kahraman was shot in the groin by her ex-husband, Muhammet Cagatay Kilicaslan, inside the Istanbul Kartal Anatolian Courthouse, according to Turkish media reports.
The incident occurred around 1:00 pm local time on the Asian side of the city.
Kilicaslan was prevented from firing a second shot by a convict on day release who was working at the court serving tea.
Kahraman received first aid at the scene before being taken to hospital, where she was reported to be in a stable condition.
Her ex-husband was arrested and was due to appear at Istanbul’s main courthouse later on Tuesday.
The attack was condemned by the We Will Stop Femicides platform.
“A female judge was shot with a firearm by her former husband, a prosecutor, in full view of everyone at the Istanbul Kartal Anatolian Courthouse, the very place where perpetrators should be punished,” the group said in a statement.
“Women can be shot with firearms even inside courthouses.”
In Turkey, official femicide figures are not collated, leaving women’s organisations to compile data from press reports.
Figures from We Will Stop Femicides show 294 women were killed by men in 2025, with another 297 found dead under suspicious circumstances.
Of those killed, 35% were murdered by their husbands and 57% were killed with firearms.
Rights groups say deaths classed as suspicious or as suicide have risen since Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention, an international pact on violence against women, in 2021.
