The family of 22-year-old Mevlüt Mert Altıntaş, a police officer who assassinated the Russian ambassador to Turkey in December, has refused to claim the assassin’s body, which as a result will be buried by a municipality in Ankara.
Altıntaş shot Ambassador Andrei Karlov to death while the ambassador was giving a speech at an art gallery in Ankara on Dec. 19.
He was subsequently killed in a police operation in the same venue.
Altıntaş’s body was taken to the Keçiören Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) in Ankara for an autopsy.
His autopsy was completed on Dec. 21. Altıntaş’s body remained in the Keçiören ATK morgue for 15 days in line with relevant procedures for the family to claim the body.
However, Altıntaş’s family did not claim his body during the span of 15 days, prompting the ATK to write to the Keçiören Municipality asking for the burial of Altıntaş’s body.
The police officer will be buried by the municipality in a cemetery where people with no relatives and unclaimed bodies are buried.