Turkiye earthquake apartment building builder sentenced to 865 years in prison

The Turkiye government on Friday sentenced to 865 years in prison the man responsible for the construction of a building that collapsed in a major earthquake in 2023, killing 96 people, according to state media.

• The building collapse killed 96 in 2023
• Over 260 involved in quake-related collapses were arrested

The 14-storey apartment building in the southern Turkish city of Adana was destroyed in February 2023 by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake that killed more than 53,500 people in Turkey and nearly 6,000 in neighboring Syria. Only one of the building’s residents survived.

The collapse of the building, built in 1975, immediately raised suspicions, as Adana, located less than 200 kilometers from the epicenter, was largely spared from the violent shaking.

The man at the dock, Hasan Alpargun, was found guilty on Friday of “possibly intentionally causing death or injury to several people,” according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. Alpargun is believed to have fled to Turkish-backed Northern Cyprus on the day of the earthquake and turned himself in to police a week later.

During the trial, experts pointed out serious defects in the quality of the concrete used, as well as in the structure of the building’s support columns.

Alpargun defended himself, claiming that the construction was approved by the authorities.

More than 260 people involved in the construction of the building that collapsed in the February 2023 earthquake were subsequently arrested, some of whom were trying to flee Turkey.

The trial of several of these entrepreneurs began this year.