ANKARA

Turkey has lifted a ban on access to Twitter on Monday evening after temporarily blocking the website for reportedly failing to remove footage of a Turkish prosecutor who was killed while being held hostage last week. 

Access to Twitter and Youtube in Turkey was blocked early Monday.

Last Friday, Istanbul Criminal Court of First Instance ruled to block access to social media sites that continued to publish content and footage relating to the death of public prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz.

Kiraz, 46, was taken hostage by an outlawed Marxist-Leninist group on March 31 at Istanbul Caglayan Courthouse and was shot by his captors after hours of negotiations between Turkish police forces and the two hostage-takers. He died of his wounds at the hospital.

Kiraz had been overseeing the case of Berkin Elvan, 15, who was critically injured during 2013’s anti-government Gezi Park protests and died after almost nine months in a coma.