The 4th hearing in the Kocaeli Dilovası cosmetics factory fire case has started

The fourth hearing of the case in which 23 defendants, including company and municipal officials, 10 of whom are detained and 1 is a fugitive, are on trial regarding the fire at the cosmetics factory in Dilovası district of Kocaeli, where 7 people died and 6 people were injured, has started.

The hearing, held by the Gebze 7th High Criminal Court in the hall of the Kandıra Penal Institution Campus, was attended by detained defendants, some unarrested defendants, complainants and party lawyers.

The hearing started with the reading of the documents in the file and the indictment prepared against 7 defendants, 5 of whom were on duty and former municipality employees.

The promised detained defendant, former Dilovası Deputy Mayor Necati Temiz, said that he took office after the local elections on March 31, 2024, that the business in question was licensed during the former mayor's term, and that he signed the renewed license due to the address change of the business.

Temiz argued that he had no responsibility to examine the content of the file brought for signature and stated that he did not know the business owners and had never been in the same environment before.

Temiz, who claimed that he did not know that there was a demolition decision for the building where the fire occurred when he signed the license, requested its evacuation.

The arrested defendant Hüseyin Öztürk, the then Dilovası Municipality Planning and Urbanization Director and Deputy Mayor of Dilovası, argued that they made demolition decisions for 264 illegal buildings during his term of office, and that he did not find it right that the current municipal administration and the officers tried as defendants should be held responsible for the demolitions that could not be carried out due to the illegal building files that had accumulated in Dilovası for more than 40 years.

Öztürk claimed that the municipality does not have the economic and social power to afford the demolitions and that the existing illegal buildings cannot be demolished even in more than 10 years, and noted that at the time when the license was given to the business where the fire broke out, they detected the illegal building and directed it to the Directorate of Technical Affairs with a decision to demolish it, but the demolition was not carried out.

Öztürk stated that the civil inspectors held him responsible for the demolition that did not take place, but that he fulfilled his duties in the decision taken by the municipal council regarding illegal buildings in 2016, argued that he was not responsible for the process after making the demolition decision, and asked for his release.

Former Building Control Manager, detained defendant Cihan Sorgucu, argued that the expert report was technically problematic.

Pointing out that he was not on duty when the building in question was built and the fire occurred, the Interrogator claimed that he did not have time to organize a demolition tender during his term of office due to lack of budget, that he reported all illegal structures to the relevant authorities during his term of office, and that there was no abuse of duty or negligence in his work and transactions.

The detained defendant Muammer Telli, Dilovası Municipality Building Control Manager, said that he was not working at the municipality when the construction of the burned building started, and that he was not the building control manager when the demolition decision was issued.

Stating that he started his duty in April 2024, Telli stated that the directorate increased its budget from 3.5 million lira in 2024 to approximately 85 million lira in 2025 in order to realize the demolition tender of illegal buildings throughout the district.

Telli stated that he prepared a tender dossier for the demolition of illegal buildings throughout the district in April 2025, and that the tender held in July of the same year for 250 million liras was canceled due to the lack of participants, and emphasized that it was not possible to demolish the illegal buildings with the municipality's own means.

The detained defendant Selim San, former Deputy Building Control Manager, stated that he was on duty for a short period of 5.5 months and that he did not take any action regarding the business where the fire broke out during this period.

After the defense of the detained defendants was completed, the hearing was adjourned until tomorrow morning.

WHAT HAPPENED?

In the fire that broke out in a cosmetics factory in Mimar Sinan District of Dilovası district on November 8, 2025, Tuğba Taşdemir (17) and her cousin Nisanur Taşdemir (15), Cansu Esetoğlu (15), Hanım Gülek (52), Esma Gikan (31) and Şengül Yılmaz (59) lost their lives and 7 people were injured. Tuncay Yıldız, who was taken to Kocaeli City Hospital, died on November 15.

In the 97-page indictment prepared by the Gebze Chief Public Prosecutor's Office and accepted by the Gebze 7th High Criminal Court, the detained cosmetics company officials Altay Ali and his brother İsmail Oransal, along with Aleyna Oransal, the officials of the cosmetics company who are considered to have joint production, and the detained defendant Gökberk Güngör, were sentenced to 7 life sentences for the crime of "killing with possible intent" and 3 times each for the crime of "damaging property with possible intent" from 5 months, 10 days to 3 years. A prison sentence is requested.

Fugitive Ü.Ç, the operator of Global OSGB company, which provides occupational health and safety services to the factory where the incident took place, and Ü.A., the responsible manager. and occupational safety experts M.D. and S.Ç, G.D, the former owner of the factory building, C.Ö.Y, Ö.Y., officials of the company that bought the building. and Ö.Y. for the crime of "causing death and injury through conscious negligence" and imprisonment from 2 years and 8 months to 22 years and 6 months each. In the indictment, Ali Osman Akat and Abdurrahman Bayat, who were detained on the grounds that they helped the cosmetics company officials escape, and Ö.A., who was not detained, were imprisoned. and Ö.Y. A prison sentence of 6 months to 5 years is requested for the crime of "favoring the criminal".

In addition, in the indictment prepared by the Gebze Chief Public Prosecutor's Office against 7 officials and former municipality employees and decided to combine them with the current file, a prison sentence of 2 years, 8 months to 22 years and 6 months each is requested for the defendants for the crime of "causing the death and injury of more than one person through conscious negligence".