(AA Photo)
A court in the southern province of Kahramanmaraş released two bakery operators sentenced to eight years in prison for cutting columns at the Ezgi Apartment, concluding a 2023 earthquake trial over 35 deaths.
The Kahramanmaraş 4th Court for Serious Crimes issued verdicts for 11 defendants, two of them jailed, after a 15-hour hearing. Prosecutors sought 876 years and six months for bakery operators Sami Kervancıoğlu and Mustafa Pekel for homicide and injury with probable intent.
The panel instead convicted them of causing multiple deaths and injuries with conscious negligence, imposing eight-year sentences and releasing them under judicial control. The court acquitted the bakery’s interior designer Ertan Danacı.
It sentenced building technical supervisor Mehmet Tekin to six years and eight months in prison alongside a two-year professional ban. Former Kahramanmaraş Municipality Zoning Affairs Head Fahri Yiğitoğlu and acting Onikişubat Municipality Zoning and Urban Planning Head Sait Avşar got four years, five months and 10 days.
Civil engineer Ali Gemci, construction technician Mehmet Akif Canlı and architect Veli Çiftaslan received the same sentence. The panel acquitted former Kahramanmaraş Municipality architect Mehmet Dişçeken and mechanical engineer Mustafa Şirikçi. Relatives of the victims protested the rulings.
The collapsed apartment became a symbol of the massive devastation caused by the Feb. 6, 2023, earthquakes striking 11 of the country’s 81 provinces. Such trials often focus on unauthorized structural modifications on ground floors and the negligence of local authorities in issuing construction permits.
