Some contractors captured over collapsed buildings

KAHRAMANMARAŞ

Turkish authorities are targeting contractors linked with buildings that collapsed in the two deadly earthquakes in the country’s south, as some of them have been detained.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said 131 people were under investigation for their responsibility in the construction of buildings that failed to withstand the quakes.

Among those facing scrutiny were two people arrested in Gaziantep province on suspicion of cutting down columns to make extra room in a building that collapsed.

Two contractors, a couple, held responsible for the destruction of buildings in Adıyaman were arrested on Feb. 12 at Istanbul Airport while trying to leave the country.

When the suspects were arrested at Istanbul Airport, $ 16,000 and 20,000 Turkish Liras were found on them.

While Yavuz Karakuş and his wife Sevilay Karakuş were being taken for a medical checkup, journalists asked, “Is your conscience at ease?”

Yavuz Karakuş said, “My conscience is clear. I built 44 buildings. Only four of them were destroyed. I did everything according to the rules.”

Contractor İbrahim Mustafa Uncuoğlu was detained in Istanbul’s Pendik district as his negligence was found in a building destroyed in which the bodies of nine people were reached in the first stage in Gaziantep.

A 62-year-old engineer of a collapsed building in Gaziantep was captured in the Aegean province of Afyonkarahisar.

Within the scope of the investigation carried out by Diyarbakır’s Prosecutor’s Office, the number of people who were detained over collapsed building in the city increased to 33.

Mehmet Yaşar Coşkun, the contractor of a residence collapsed in Hatay, was sent to a prison in Istanbul.

In the investigation over a collapsed building in Şanlıurfa in which 33 people lost their lives, 11 people were detained.