ISTANBUL
Istanbul First Criminal Court of Peace warned Google on Monday that access to its search engine would be blocked in Turkey if the company fails to remove footage showing the slain Turkish prosecutor who was held hostage last week.
Media reports say the potential Google ban would go into effect at 1:30 a.m. local time (2230 GMT). An earlier ban on Twitter and Youtube was lifted Monday evening.
Last Friday, an Istanbul court ruled to block access to social media sites that continued to publish content and footage surrounding 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.
