The case regarding the accident in which 2 trainee engineers lost their lives and one was injured as a result of the 3-ton iron curtain formwork falling over at the construction site of the Merkez Ankara project on August 15, 2022, in a severe storm and downpour, continued.
At the hearing at Ankara 1st High Criminal Court, the defendants without arrest, İnan Yücel, the employer representative of Pacific İnşaat's subcontractor firm Bozbaşoğulları İnşaat, the company's foreman Bayram Yüksel, civil engineer Alpcan Ergüven, occupational safety expert Emrah Akyol, Pacific Construction Project Manager Sinan Kar and the intern Ege Kıratlı, who was injured in the incident, İsmail Çetin, the father of Emre Çetin, who died in the accident, and Zeki Öztürk, the father of Taha Öztürk, who died in the accident. attended.
At the hearing, the President of the Court stated that a new expert report was included in the file. In the report of the expert committee entered into the file, the main cause of the accident that occurred on the 5th floor of Block B of the Merkez Ankara construction in Yenimahalle on August 15, 2022, was that the iron curtain formwork weighing approximately three tons was left without being properly fixed.
While the report stated that the accident was foreseeable and preventable, it was noted that there was no element of inevitability. The expert panel found the defendants, construction site manager İnan Yücel, 50 percent at fault, mold master Bayram Yüksel 20 percent, project manager Sinan Kar 15 percent, and field engineer Alpcan Ergüven 15 percent.
The public prosecutor repeated his opinion on the merits. Accordingly, in line with the expert report, the prosecutor requested that the defendants, construction site manager İnan Yücel and project manager Sinan Kar, be sentenced to imprisonment from 2 to 15 years each for the crime of "negligently killing and injuring people", and that Emrah Akyol, Alpcan Ergüven and Bayram Yüksel be acquitted.
“WE DEMANDED THOSE WHO WERE REALLY NEGLIGENT AND INTENTIONAL TO BE PROsecuted”
At the hearing, Murat Yıldız, the lawyer of the complainant Zeki Öztürk, the father of Taha Öztürk, who lost his life in the accident, took the floor.
Stating that they did not accept the new expert report in the file, Yıldız said:
"We do not accept the latest report added to the file. Because we have demanded that those who were really negligent and intentional should be prosecuted since the investigation phase. None of our demands were met in all the reports. These are our struggle to truly establish justice. We said to the file, 'In such a big project, the company that says 'we employ thousands of people' in the press and on billboards should be provided with an administrative scheme of the construction site. It was stated that this scheme does not exist. This is already wrong in this construction in the first place. It shows that he is buttoned up.”
"FATIH ERDOĞAN, WHO WAS REMOVED IN TWO DAYS IN THE FUND ROBBERY..."
Stating that they want the main employer of the construction, Pacific Construction officials, and the subcontractor Bozbaşoğulları Construction officials to be heard, Yıldız said, "These names are at the top. These names know how the transactions are carried out. While Turkey is shaken by the fund robbery today, the death of two children of the people remains like an ant in this file, while Fatih Erdoğan, whose property measures were lifted in two days, is on one side."
Yıldız asked for the file to be expanded in line with the investigation requests and said:
"The prosecutor's office has renewed its opinion on the merits. This shows that the prosecutor of the case has not read this file. In the reports received, it is said that 'This incident is a foreseeable event'. Despite this, it is unlawful to demand punishment for manslaughter. This is not law. The governor's office warns the day before the incident that a storm will develop. In addition, these children have not been trained, it is in both the reports and the defendant's statements. An intern or a university student who has not been on the construction site before is brought to the construction site and 5. According to the reports and statements, the mold in question was not fixed and the work continued despite all warnings.
“ALL DEFENDANTS SHOULD BE PUNISHED WITH POSSIBLE INTENTION”
Therefore, it is very clear that there is a predictable event and outcome here. Here, giving a penalty for manslaughter by negligence will be recorded as a legal oddity. In a system where it does not matter who dies or dies, these children died. We need to prevent this greed for profit for a good country, future and our children. We want a decision that shows that the rule of law exists in real terms, not on paper. "I want all the defendants to be punished and arrested with possible intent."
Father İsmail Çetin, who lost his son in the accident, also spoke at the hearing. Çetin said, "It's been 4 years and 2 months, it's been 50 months since this incident happened. It hurts us that we come here and leave. We will suffer this pain until we die, and I can't stand the defendants not being punished while we suffer this pain. I can't stand this anymore. I leave the discretion to you."
DEFENDANT YÜCEL: “I WANT EMPLOYERS WHO DO NOT PROVIDE WIND CURTAINS TO BE PROsecuted”
İnan Yücel, employer representative of Pacific İnşaat's subcontractor Bozbaşoğulları İnşaat, included the following allegations in his defense:
"In this case, the change of the committee had a negative impact on the file. The previous committee had requested an expert report to determine the responsibilities, but you annulled this decision. It is obvious that those who escaped from the cost of the wind curtain and did not buy it, and those who have to provide it are the employers according to the law. I want them to be tried, defend my rights too, Mr. Judge. I will clean up the mess the boss has made and at the same time inspect the field. The boss, Halil İbrahim Bozbaşoğulları, asked me to check whether the column has hardened. While we were looking at this, a storm broke out. "I was also on the field that day, none of us could escape, and unfortunately, neither could these children. Also, internship obligations depend on the university rectorate. That's why I want it to be determined whether the names I mentioned are responsible."
“THOSE REALLY RESPONSIBLE ARE NOT BEING JUDGED”
In his defense, Yücel's lawyer said, "My attorney was especially authorized regarding paperwork. Neither the authority to stop the work nor the internship was given. The sub-work officer was also at the construction site that day and he was giving the instructions. My client cannot be responsible while he was there. Why is he not here today? Besides, the only thing that could have prevented this accident was the wind curtain. Those who avoided the wind curtain money, that is, the money for a house, are not among us today. In short, those who are really responsible are not being tried. At this point, we demand an extended investigation."
The court panel separately rejected the requests for a new expert report and an expanded investigation, on the grounds that they would not contribute to the file. The committee decided to give the parties time to defend against the newly entered expert report and postponed the hearing to 16 December.
"A GROUP WITH THE GOVERNMENT BEHIND IT, OF COURSE, WOULD NOT BE TRIED HERE"
Lawyer Murat Yıldız, in his statement to journalists after the hearing, argued that there was no legal trial in the file. Stating that they requested the management scheme regarding the main and subcontractor at all stages of the file, Yıldız said, "We demanded that the statements of the officials of Pacific İnşaat and Bozbaşoğulları İnşaat be taken and that the real responsible parties be revealed. But this was not fulfilled at all stages. This was not enough, the scheme was not brought and the lawyer of me, that is, the participants and the victims, was complained."
"THE ASSETS WERE SEIZED AND HASTLY REMOVED"
Reminding that in previous hearings, the requests for hearing and trial of all officials of two companies, including Pacific Holding Chairman Fatih Erdoğan and Bozbaşoğulları İnşaat, were rejected by the delegation on the grounds that "the right not to be tarnished would be violated", Yıldız said:
"Now we understand that the efforts we have made so far have been in vain. Because, while the assets of Fatih Erdoğan and Pacific Construction were seized in the recent events that were on Türkiye's agenda and where Türkiye was plundered, this measure was hastily eliminated. We wanted Fatih Erdoğan to be tried in a case in which two young people died and one of them was disabled.
This means that we were actually pursuing a futile effort. Because a group that is so powerful, has the power to immediately lift the precautions against it, and has the government behind it, would of course not be tried here. We do not want trials specific to individuals or groups, but open and transparent trials where everyone can express themselves and be seen as equals before justice. We do not want anyone to be declared guilty even though they are not guilty. We are the ones who have been demanding that the right not to be tarnished be violated in high criminal courts and criminal courts of first instance for years.
Making statements and making statements before the courts is not a violation of the right not to be tarnished. Otherwise, people who were tried so many times and were ultimately acquitted would also be tainted. When we expressed this, the high penalty committee cited the scheme as a justification. While the lack of a diagram was their fault, it became a fault attributed to us. "Fatih Erdoğan is not being tried, the owner of the Bozbaşoğulları company is not being tried, but I, as the lawyers of the victims, am being tried."
