More detained, arrested in probe into contractors

ISTANBUL

The number of detentions and arrests has increased in investigations in four earthquake-hit provinces into the buildings that were destroyed in the major tremor or that were found to have undergone illegal zoning changes.

Among the arrested is Ömer Cihan, the contractor of a building in Hatay, against whom the relatives of those who lost their lives in the apartment lodged a complaint.

After an arrest warrant was issued for him, police found out Cihan went to the coastal town of Manavgat with his family and stayed in a five-star hotel as an earthquake victim. Taken into custody, he was then arrested by the court.

Meanwhile, 26 more suspects were caught within the scope of the investigation carried out by the chief public prosecutor’s office in the quake-hit Malatya province. Efforts are underway to apprehend 14 more for whom detention warrants have been issued.

Prosecutors conduct investigations in the wreckages, accompanied by experts, taking iron and concrete samples from the debris. The technical examinations decide whether judicial proceedings will be initiated against those who have a defect.

An arrest warrant was issued for O.E., the project manager of a building in Şanlıurfa, which claimed the lives of 14 people, as a result of examinations. He was detained in Istanbul.

Among the 10 suspects taken into custody as part of the investigation regarding the buildings destroyed in Şanlıurfa, four more people, two of whom are contractors, were arrested.

In Adana, 16 people, the contractors and engineers of 13 buildings in Adana where 418 people lost their lives in the major quakes, were detained.

The Justice Ministry last week issued an announcement to the chief public prosecutor’s offices for an effective investigation in the 10 provinces affected by the earthquakes, asking them to establish “earthquake crime investigation offices.”

Prosecutors who will work in these offices to be established will not be given any other job, the announcement said, stressing that efforts will be made to identify the contractors, engineers of record and inspectors of the destroyed buildings, whose number exceeds 64,000.

The ministry deployed 304 additional prosecutors and 1,275 personnel in quake-affected provinces to investigate the collapsed buildings, as well as security issues in the region.