ADIYAMAN / ADANA (Turkiye), Feb 18 — Turkish courts on Friday remanded in custody several building contractors, as well as the owner and three managers of a collapsed hotel following last week’s two major earthquakes.
In a statement, the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in Adiyaman, a Turkish province heavily hit by the quakes, said that Ersin Tekin, the contractor of a collapsed building in the city, was remanded in custody by a local court.
Seven people were killed in the building, which was built five years ago. According to the statement, an arrest warrant was issued for another suspect who was allegedly a joint contractor of the same building, reported Anadolu Agency citing the statement.
Similarly, the owner and three managers of the Isias Hotel in the Adiyaman province, where several people, including members of a young volleyball team from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) died under the rubble, were also remanded.
Meanwhile, in the southern Adana province, another suspect was also remanded in custody over alleged links to construction defects in collapsed buildings.
At least 39,000 people were killed by the two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Turkiye on February 6, according to the latest figures.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes were centered in Kahramanmaras and struck 10 other provinces – Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Hatay, Gaziantep, Malatya, Kilis, Osmaniye, Elazig and Sanliurfa. More than 13 million people have been affected by the devastating quakes.
Several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon, also felt the strong tremors that struck Turkiye in the space of less than 10 hours.
— Bernama
