There was an explosion at around 15:00 on June 30, 2024, at a commercial store on Barış Manço Street in Torbalı district, Ayrancılar District. Ruken Çağur (31), Evin Aslan (36), her sister Birgül Sarsılmaz (44), Havin Ergin (17) and Dilek Bağ (24) lost their lives in the explosion, and 63 people were injured.
The building where the explosion occurred was severely damaged, and the windows and frames of 10 surrounding buildings were broken. The injured were taken to surrounding hospitals. Following the incident, the materials in the restaurant were seized by the gendarmerie for examination. Teams from the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change carried out damage assessment work on the damaged buildings and workplaces at the scene. 2 assigned inspectors conducted an investigation.
'DECISION HAS BEEN MADE'
Mustafa Koç, who was claimed to have changed the tube after the explosion, and Gülden Kul, the business owner who was caught in Menderes district, were arrested. It was determined that the workplace where the explosion occurred had not been licensed for 6 months. In the statement of business owner Gülden Kul, who applied for a license to the municipality on May 29, 2024, it was stated that she changed the cylinder and said that there was no problem. It was recorded that Mustafa Koç, who changed the tube, said in his statement that he took appropriate action.
Following the investigation into the incident, an indictment was prepared. The prosecutor prepared an indictment against Gülden Kul and Mustafa Koç and the undetained defendant Osman İnce, the Aegean Region manager of the tube company, who was stated to have been negligent in the incident, requesting a prison sentence of 2 to 15 years each for the crime of 'causing the death and injury of more than one person by negligence'. During the case held at Torbalı High Criminal Court, Gülden Kul, one of the defendants, was released under house arrest. At the verdict hearing held on November 12, 2025, Mustafa Koç, who changed the cylinder, was sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in prison, business owner Gülden Kul was sentenced to 8 years and 4 months in prison, and Osman İnce, the Aegean Region manager of the cylinder company, was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison. The prison sentence given to İnce was converted into a fine of 364 thousand TL.
'NO EVALUATION ABOUT DEFECT CASES'
Upon the objections of the lawyers, the file was taken to appeal. The 19th Criminal Chamber of the Izmir Regional Court of Justice concluded that the report received from the expert panel consisting of ITU faculty members regarding Gülden Kul was not sufficient and did not include legal examination. It was emphasized that the expert report taken by the Torbalı Chief Public Prosecutor's Office was in accordance with the scope and nature of the file, and that the report of the expert committee at the investigation stage was respected, and that, in terms of Mustafa Koç, the report received from the expert committee consisting of ITU faculty members was taken as basis, in a way that would contradict the evaluation regarding Gülden Kul. From Osman İnce's side, it was stated that the report received from the expert committee consisting of ITU faculty members, together with the additional expert report received during the investigation phase, was taken as basis, and that there was no evaluation of the faults of the defendants.
'CONSCIOUS NEGLIGENCE NEEDS TO BE DISCUSSED'
The Criminal Chamber decided that it was not taken into account that the legal situation of the defendants should be evaluated after receiving a report on whether there was a fault that could be directed to the defendants, the deceased or a third party in the incident, and if so, what the degree of fault was. The Criminal Chamber emphasized that the legal situations of the defendants should be evaluated after receiving a report from a 5-person expert panel consisting of expert faculty members from the departments of chemistry, machinery, metallurgical and materials engineering, petroleum and natural gas and civil engineering at the technical faculties of universities, who are also labor and social security experts. On the other hand, it was also underlined that it should be discussed whether Koç and Kul's actions reached the level of conscious negligence.
'THEY WILL BE TRIED AGAIN'
While it was stated that Torbalı District Governorship gave permission for an investigation against municipal officials, it was also decided to investigate the outcome of the investigation against the said officials. For these reasons, the Criminal Chamber did not find the local court's decision to be lawful and sent the file back to the local court. The defendants will appear before the judge again at Torbalı High Criminal Court on 26 November.
