Prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for scores of developers as the death toll from last week’s earthquake in Turkey and Syria tops 28,000 and the security situation in some areas of the disaster zone has deteriorated.
Turkish investigators have identified 131 people of interest in a wide-ranging probe into the catastrophe, handing out 113 arrest warrants, Fuat Oktay, vice-president, said in a press conference early on Sunday. Several people have already been detained, according to state-run media.
The inquiry, which is being led by almost 150 local prosecutors’ offices, is the latest sign of how Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is attempting to address mounting criticism over lax enforcement of building standards, which many seismology and civil-engineering experts say substantially worsened the toll from Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake.