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Turkey has been hit by a second courthouse theft just days after a court clerk stole nearly 150 million Turkish lira (€4.4 million) worth of gold and silver from a vault in Istanbul’s Büyükçekmece Courthouse before fleeing to the UK.
This time, the incident unfolded on one of Istanbul’s Princes’ Islands, where 12 firearms were reported missing from the property and evidence unit of the Adalar Courthouse.
According to Turkish authorities, an internal inspection revealed that the weapons had disappeared from the evidence storage facility of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Istanbul’s Princes’ Islands.
Investigators later recovered three of the missing guns, while the search for the remaining nine is still under way.
A courthouse clerk, identified only by his initials UE, who works in the evidence unit, has been arrested and placed in pre-trial detention.
Officials say the clerk stole the firearms and sold them, though details about where the weapons ended up have not yet been disclosed.
The Princes’ Islands, known in Turkish as Adalar, are a chain of nine islands in the Sea of Marmara off Istanbul’s coast. The islands are popular tourist destinations known for their historic architecture and absence of motor vehicles.
Adalar Courthouse serves the approximately 15,000 permanent residents of the four inhabited islands, though the population swells significantly during summer months.
Authorities say efforts to locate the nine missing firearms are ongoing.
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The incident comes as Turkey is still reeling from the earlier scandal involving a judicial staff member who allegedly stole vast quantities of gold and silver from a courthouse safe and fled abroad.
In that case, court clerk Soner Uzun disappeared in late November after stealing 25 kilograms of gold and 50 kilograms of silver worth nearly 150 million lira from the evidence vault at Büyükçekmece Courthouse in Istanbul.
The theft was discovered when another employee attempted to access the vault and found it empty. Uzun had been responsible for managing the evidence storage facility, which held confiscated precious metals from criminal cases.
Authorities said Uzun fled to the United Kingdom shortly after the theft. Turkish prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant and requested his extradition.
The stolen items had been seized as part of ongoing criminal investigations and were being held as evidence. The case sparked major public criticism over security gaps in judicial evidence storage facilities across Turkey.
Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into how Uzun was able to access and remove such large quantities of precious metals without detection.
Courthouses across Turkey hold billions of lira worth of seized assets, including cash, precious metals, weapons, drugs and other items confiscated during criminal investigations. These items are meant to be stored securely until cases are resolved and final legal decisions are made about their disposal.
The Justice Ministry has not yet announced whether it plans to implement new security protocols following the two thefts.