At least 14 people have been arrested, including a district mayor , following a deadly cable car accident in Turkey, in the city of Antalya, where one of the cabins in operation suffered an impact that caused its eight occupants to fall, one of whom died.
An Antalya court on Monday ordered five of those arrested in connection with the accident, which occurred on the Sarısu cable car in the tourist district of Konyaaltı, to be remanded in custody; the detainees are now charged with the crime of negligence in the maintenance and supervision of the cable car, whose accident killed a 54-year-old man and forced the deployment of a large rescue operation to take out 184 other people who remained trapped for 23 hours in the other cabins.
Turkish media reported that the five people who have been remanded in prison on the judge’s orders include Mesut Kocagöz, who was recently re-elected mayor of Antalya’s Kepez district by the opposition CHP party in Turkey’s municipal elections in late March; prior to his election, Kocagöz had been chairman and CEO of Anet, the company that had been awarded the contract for the operation and maintenance of the cable car by the Antalya Metropolitan Municipality.
In his testimony before the court, the now mayor claimed that he had left his position at the head of the company last November in order to stand as a candidate in the 31 March elections, and that he therefore bore no responsibility for the cable car accident. The court, however, considered that his connection to the accident was sufficiently clear to order him to be remanded in custody pending trial. The other four defendants who have been sent to prison also had responsibilities in the maintenance and supervision of the cable car. Eight other detainees were released by the judge under judicial supervision.
VOTE
EDITORIAL TEAM
🧿 About us
.
Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
…
📣 Your ADVERTISING on Hispanatolia
.
🤗 HELP US WITH A DONATION:
💗 Paypal
