Scandalous defense from the fugitive contractor of the Sami Bey Apartment, where 40 people died: "The building did not collapse, it split in two"

Abdullah Aybaba, the contractor of the Sami Bey Apartment in Adana, where 40 people lost their lives in the February 6 earthquakes, appeared before a judge after being extradited from Thailand, where he had fled. Aybaba, who was arrested, sparked outrage with his statement: "None of the buildings I constructed collapsed. The building in question did not collapse either; it split in two."

In the February 6 earthquakes centered in Kahramanmaraş, 40 of our citizens lost their lives and 2 people were injured when the Sami Bey Apartment in Adana's Çukurova district was leveled. In the investigation conducted by the Adana Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, a lawsuit was filed against 4 defendants, including the building's contractor and technical implementation supervisor Abdullah Aybaba, as well as public officials, demanding up to 22 years and 6 months in prison each for the crime of "causing the death and injury of more than one person through conscious negligence."

FLED THE DAY AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE: CAPTURED IN THAILAND

During the trial process, it was determined that the defendant, Abdullah Aybaba, had fled abroad from Istanbul Airport just one day after the major disaster, on February 7, and had not returned. The fugitive contractor, for whom a red notice had been issued, was detained in Thailand, where he was hiding, and brought to Turkey on May 15. Aybaba was brought before the Adana 4th High Criminal Court and sent to prison.

DEFENDED HIMSELF BRAZENLY BEFORE THE JUDGE: MY BUILDINGS DO NOT COLLAPSE

Appearing before the judge via SEGBİS (Audio and Video Information System), the defendant contractor Abdullah Aybaba did not accept any of the serious charges against him. Claiming that he has been a civil engineer since 1977 and has built more than 50 buildings, Aybaba used the following scandalous expressions in his defense in court:

"I built the building according to the approval and project received from the municipality. The core test values in the building are in accordance with the regulations and are at the values they should be. None of the buildings I built in Adana collapsed. The building in question did not collapse either; it split in two."

REJECTED THE EXPERT REPORT, BLAMED OTHERS

Rejecting the earthquake reports and the flaws attributed to him, Aybaba attempted to shift the blame onto the building's residents to evade responsibility for the 40 deaths. The detained contractor, who claimed that columns had been cut, continued his defense as follows:

"After the building was constructed, beams and columns may have been cut. This may have caused the building to first split in two and then collapse... A natural gas line was installed in the building later, and I do not know where these were routed. It may have occurred as a result of weakening the iron or concrete in the beams or columns. This could be the reason for the building splitting in two. Most experts might also evaluate the reason for the building splitting in two in this direction."

The court panel decided to continue the detention of the defendant Aybaba, citing "strong suspicion of crime, the nature of the offense, the expected sentence, and the insufficiency of judicial control measures."