Turkish Minister of Justice challenges HDP's Demirtas during visit to Elci family

DIYARBEKIR (K24, Agencies) - Turkish Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdag paid a condolences visit on Tuesday to the family of the prominent Kurdish lawyer Tahir Elci, who was killed last week in Diyarbekir.

After meeting with the Elci family, the Turkish Minister Bozdag challenged the co-chair of the Pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party Selahattin Demirtas to "speak in accordance with facts and provide documents," in response to the claim Demirtas had made about Elci's killing.

HDP's Demirtas said on Monday in a meeting with the press at his party's headquarters in the Turkish capital of Ankara that at the place Elci was killed "there was no one firing except police officers." HDP had called the killing an "assassination."

Speaking to members of the press outside Elcis' house in the major Kurdish city of Diyarbekir, Bozdag claimed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has obstructed an investigation at the crime scene by the prosecutor.

Bozdag said a curfew was immediately put in place in the Sur district of the city of Diyarbekir where Elci was caught in and shot dead in the head during a street shootout between plainclothes Turkish police and suspected PKK-affiliated armed youth. Despite the curfew "for security reasons, the investigation team came under automatic weapon fire from side-streets," he added.

The killing of the head of Diyarbekir Bar Association Tahir Elci sparked outrage among the Kurds and opposition in Turkey and a series of condemnations by leaders, including the President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani and the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini.

(Hesen Kako contributed to this report from Diyarbekir)