Engineer of building where 82 people died speaks out: "They are putting on a show"

Ferit Işık, the construction engineer being held in custody for the İhsan Bayram Apartment complex in Adana where 82 people died, told the lawyer defending the victims that she was 'putting on a show.' Speaking after the hearing at the Adana 14th High Criminal Court, lawyer Nazan Akça Subaşı stated, "This is not 'manslaughter,' this is 'intentional homicide.'" The court set the date for the next hearing as December 8, 2023.

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Engineer of building where 82 people died speaks out:

The case regarding Block C of the İhsan Bayram Apartment complex, where 82 people lost their lives in the earthquakes that occurred on February 6, was heard at the Adana 14th High Criminal Court.

Relatives of those who lost their lives in the complex, located in Adana's Çukurova district, showed great interest in the case.

Ferit Işık, the construction engineer being held in custody as one of the defendants in the case, used the phrase "putting on a show" toward the lawyer defending the victims. Tensions rose in the courtroom following this outburst.

Lawyer Nazan Akça Subaşı said, "The contractor had the concrete made himself during the construction phase. Even those concrete blocks filled with stones were made knowingly. Death came with eyes wide open."

It was noted during the hearing that the detained contractors were shifting responsibility onto one another.

The court set the date for the next hearing as December 8, 2023, for the testimony of the landowner, who did not attend the hearing, and for the collection of missing evidence.

"THEY BUILT A ROTTEN BUILDING"

Speaking after the hearing, lawyer Nazan Akça Subaşı explained the process as follows:

“In the first hearing, the statements of the complainants and the statements of Construction Engineer Ferit Işık and contractor Celal Gür were taken. The evidence collection phase is still ongoing. It seems the hearings will continue for some time. While the hearings were ongoing, I asked them, ‘Did you witness the Ceyhan earthquake that happened in Adana?’ They stated that they had experienced it. Despite knowing that they lived through the earthquake and that Adana is an earthquake zone, these 2 people built a rotten building."

"THERE IS INTENTIONAL HOMICIDE"

Stating that the contractor declared they had made the concrete themselves while building the İhsan Bayram Apartment complex, Subaşı said, “While Construction Engineer Ferit Işık said, ‘I never went to the construction site,’ contractor Celal Gül said they made the concrete themselves. These individuals made those rotten concrete blocks, those blocks filled with stones, themselves. This is not ‘manslaughter,’ this is ‘intentional homicide.’ Just as the authorities were convicted of intentional homicide in the Soma mine disaster, we expect the same sentence here.”

Subaşı concluded her words as follows:

''Instead of feeling sorry and apologizing to those complainants, to those who lost their loved ones, the defendant told me there that I was ‘putting on a show.’ I believe a very different decision will be made here. If a building collapses in Adana, a place that is not the epicenter of the earthquake, this is an end caused more by the rottenness of the building and the negligence of those responsible than by the earthquake itself. I hope and believe they will not be able to get out of prison."

News Source: İHA