Turkey Detains Over 100 Contractors After Earthquake

The New York Times reports:

With anger swelling in Turkey on Saturday over the government’s slow response to Monday’s devastating earthquake and what critics say was shoddy construction, the government began detaining building contractors across the country who it blamed for some of the collapses that have helped drive the death toll above 21,000.

More than 100 people were detained across the 10 provinces affected by the quake, the state-run Anadolu News Agency reported on Saturday, as the Turkish Justice Ministry ordered officials in those provinces to set up “Earthquake Crimes Investigation Units.”

It also directed them to appoint prosecutors to bring criminal charges against all the “constructors and those responsible” for the collapse of buildings that failed to meet existing codes, which had been put in place after a similar disaster in 1999.

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As Anger Swells Over Quake, #Turkey Detains Building Constructors https://t.co/pQOTgMrAIO

— Bassem Mroue باسم مروه (@bmroue) February 11, 2023