Four out of six dormitory administrators who were released on Jan. 22 following their previous arrest in connection to a November fire at a dormitory in the southern province of Adana that killed 12 have been rearrested.
In a statement on Monday, Adana Bar Association President Veli Küçük said four dormitory administrators — Ramazan Keleş, Ramazan Dede, Mustafa Öztaş and Mahir Kılınç — out of six administrators arrested following the incident on Nov. 29 were rearrested on Monday after attorneys from the Adana Bar Commission for Children’s Rights, the Social Aid Association and the Aladağ Chief Public Prosecutor’s office objected to their release.
Ten schoolgirls, an instructor and a 4-year-old child died while at least 22 others were injured in the fire at the dormitory, located in Adana’s Aladağ district.
According to preliminary findings the fire was caused by an electrical fault in the building, where 34 female students from low-income families reside, Adana Governor Mahmut Demirtaş told the media at the time.
As part of the investigation by the Aladağ Public Prosecutor’s Office into the incident, dormitory director Cumali Genç, director of the Aladağ Aid Association for Course Students İsmail Uğur and four administrators of the dormitory, Keleş, Dede, Öztaş and Kılınç were arrested on Dec. 4, 2016.
Keleş, Dede, Öztaş and Kılınç were released on Jan. 22 after their attorneys challenged the decision on the grounds of an expert report that said the administrators were only secondary suspects.