More than eighteen years in prison. This is the penalty to which two officials involved in the construction of an important Turkish residential complex, which collapsed during the 2023 earthquake, were convicted, the local media reported on Wednesday, February 19.
The case concerns an eight-story building of the Ebrar residential complex in Kahramanmaras, a city in the south-east of the country, said the private television channel NTV.
Of the twenty-two buildings of the complex, almost all collapsed during the magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred before dawn on February 6, 2023, causing the death of 1,400 people. Wednesday's judgment was on a building in which 115 people perished, said the NTV channel.
A principal who knew “nothing about construction”
The judge condemned the principal, Tevfik Tepebasi, and the president of the cooperative having built the building, Atilla Oz, at eighteen and eight months in prison each for “Homicide and injuries by conscious negligence”. Four other accused were tried in this case, three of which were acquitted for lack of evidence, while the fourth was tried in absentia, according to NTV.
Mr. Tepebasi – incarcerated shortly after the earthquake and continued in several other cases related to the earthquake – had caused a controversy at a hearing a year ago by declaring in court that he should not be accused because he does not knew “Nothing in construction”.
Several families of victims, cited by NTV, claimed to be unhappy with the sentences pronounced and the acquittal of three defendants, announcing their intention to appeal.
To date, 189 people sentenced to prison
The earthquake and its multiple replicas have ravaged an area covering ten Turkish provinces, killing more than 53,700 people in Türkiye and at least 6,000 in neighboring Syria; 107,000 people were injured. According to figures from the Turkish AFAD disaster management agency, 39,000 buildings have been shaved and 200,000 others seriously damaged. Nearly two million people found themselves homeless.
To date, 189 people, recognized for many guilty of “Negligence” In the construction of buildings, were sentenced to prison terms. And 1,342 trials involving 1,850 defendants are underway, according to the Turkish Ministry of Justice.
The president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, pointed out the negligent entrepreneurs, accusing them of cutting on costs using cheap concrete and ignoring basic construction standards, with more than 200 entrepreneurs and promoters arrested immediately after the earthquake .
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However, no investigation has led to date concerning civil servants who have granted building permits and validated security inspections.
Source: Lemonde