As the investigation continues into the explosion at the HABAŞ Iron and Steel Factory in the Aliağa district of İzmir, which resulted in the deaths of 17 workers, a past judicial decision regarding the company's management has come to the fore again.
It has been learned that HABAŞ Chairman of the Board Mehmet Rüştü Başaran was tried in a case concerning an LPG tanker explosion in Kocaeli in 2017 that killed 1 person and injured 10, and was sentenced to 4 years, 10 months, and 10 days in prison in a ruling dated May 21, 2026. The Kocaeli 1st High Criminal Court's decision stated that Başaran and four company officials were found primarily at fault, and they were also given a professional ban.
Following the disaster, judicial and administrative investigations were launched at the factory. It was reported that inspectors from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security were also conducting an investigation at the scene.
11 DETENTION ORDERS IN THE INVESTIGATION
Deputy Minister of Justice Can Tuncay stated that the incident occurred in the steel mill section during the transport of the 3rd arc furnace ladle. According to Tuncay, the explosion occurred when the crane runway beam separated from the column supports and connections and fell, causing the charging crane ladle to drop.
Tuncay announced that 17 workers lost their lives, 15 workers were injured, and one of the injured is in critical condition. Sharing the information that one worker's body has not yet been recovered according to family reports, Tuncay stated that investigations at the scene are ongoing.
The Aliağa Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has issued detention orders for 11 people, including the factory manager, the employer's representative steel mill manager, the mechanical maintenance chief, the steel mill chief, the periodic control engineer, the department engineer, the crane mechanical maintenance engineer, the quality and planning manager, the administrative manager, the company's Aliağa branch manager, and the firm's chairman of the board.
The identities of the workers who lost their lives in the explosion were announced as İlker Sığırtmacıoğlu, Hüsnü Ersoy, Göksel Ünaldı, Yasin Taşçı, Uğur Temel, Barış Güney, Orhan Altay, Özcan Efe, Recep Fedai, Abdülkadir Kınacı, Ceylan Bıyıklı, Ferhat Maraşlı, Ersin Oğuz, Mustafa Sert, Kadir Kaan Özçelik, Serkan Kurt, and Fatih Işık.
It has been alleged that there have been other workplace accidents and deaths in the company's history. It was reported that HABAŞ founder Hamdi Başaran also lost his life in a workplace accident that occurred at the same factory in 1987.
According to information in the sources, workers have lost their lives or been injured in incidents such as explosions, falls from heights, falls into the sea, and falling heavy materials at the factory on different dates since 2018. Deputy Minister of Justice Tuncay also said that there were reports of previous worker deaths at the factory and that two separate investigations into past accidents were being evaluated.
Tuncay stated that a preliminary expert report had been obtained and that the pre-incident process, including maintenance records, was being examined, adding that the public would be informed about developments by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry.
News Source: 12punto
