Hatay Chief Public Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit against 10 defendants due to the demolition of Göçemen 2 Apartment Building.

6 people lost their lives and 3 people were injured as a result of the collapse of the 2-year-old, 8-storey Göçemen 2 Apartment, located in the Esentepe District of Hatay's Antakya district, during the February 6 earthquakes.

Regarding the demolition of the building, Hatay Chief Public Prosecutor's Office first filed a lawsuit against the contractor Mehmet Salih Göçemen, the static project designer and site manager Mehmet Fatih Rifaioğlu, the building inspection company official Mehmet Günay, the project and application inspector Züheyr Gülücü, the control officer Selman Yeniocak, and the ground survey report preparers Hıdır Zervent and Evren Gümüş for "causing the death of more than one person through conscious negligence".

The Chief Public Prosecutor's Office then filed a lawsuit against Antakya Deputy Mayor Engin Sözer, who was in the same position at the time, and municipal employees, construction technician Arif Murat Elçi, electrical engineer Bekir Sıtkı Aydın, mechanical engineer Hayrinnisa Kimyacı and architect Mevlüt Semih Küreç, for the same crime. The files were then merged.

PRIMARY, SECONDARY DEFECTIVE AND PERFECT EVALUATIONS

In the last expert report entered into the file, it was concluded that the contractor, the static project designer, the site manager, the building inspection company official, the project and application inspector and the control staff were "primarily at fault", the municipal static project control inspector, civil engineer Fahriye Aktaş and the Municipal Building Control Unit were "secondarily at fault", and those who prepared the ground survey report were "faultless".

"THEY TOOK OUR LIVES AWAY, WE ARE LOOKING FOR JUSTICE"

In the 10th hearing of the case, held on September 23, Lale Mukaddes Saraç, who lost her husband and daughter in the earthquake, stated that Göçemen 2 Apartment was one of the new buildings in the region and said, "I am looking for justice."

Ayça Saraç, who lost her father and sister in the wreck, said, "They took our lives away from us, we have been looking for justice for more than 3 years."

REQUEST FOR "MULTIDISCIPLINER EXPERT REPORT"

His independent lawyer, Seher Eriş Turgut, stated that the defendants were not present at the hearing even though a new expert report was submitted to the file, and requested that all defendants be present at the next hearing.

Turgut also explained that obtaining a report from a multidisciplinary expert committee was brought to the agenda in the notification of the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals regarding a building that collapsed in the February 6 earthquakes, and requested that a new expert report be prepared in a similar manner.

The defendant's lawyers also expressed their objections to the expert report and demanded that a new expert report be obtained and the judicial controls applied to their clients be abolished.

A NEW EXPERT REPORT WILL BE RECEIVED

In order to resolve the contradictions between the existing expert reports, the court decided to form a new expert panel consisting of at least 5 people who are experts in the fields of construction, engineering, architecture, law, geophysics and geotechnics.

While the court removed the defendants' obligation to sign at the police station, it decided to continue the judicial control measures in the form of a travel ban and postponed the case to December 15, 2026.