The governor’s office in the northwestern Turkish province of Kastamonu has refused to allow an investigation into public officials over their alleged role in the death of a child, one of dozens who perished, in flash floods that hit the region in 2021, the ANKA news agency reported.
Flash floods devastated parts of northwestern Turkey on the Black Sea in the summer of 2021 where dozens of people lost their lives in Kastamonu, Sinop and Bartın provinces.
Eight people who went missing during the floods were never found.
At the time locals from the affected areas accused local officials of a lack of proper warning about the dangers of the incoming storms and failing to take the necessary measures to prevent damage and a loss of lives.
The family of one of the victims in Kastamonu, 11-year-old Tuana İrem Işık, filed criminal complaints against seven public officials from the local water utility, the State Hydraulic Works, on accusations of “causing foreseeable death and injury due to negligence,” a crime punishable by a prison sentence ranging from two to 22 years.
When prosecutors sought permission from the Kastamonu Governor’s Office to investigate the public officials, the governor rejected their request, claiming that the water utility officials who were responsible for the construction and maintenance of a reclamation area on the Ezine River, which overflowed its banks at the time, were not at fault and did their job in line with the necessary regulations. The governor’s office said the deaths took place due to the catastrophic amount of rain that was impossible to foresee.
Turkey’s rugged Black Sea coast is dotted with villages built along valleys that frequently experience heavy flooding in the summer months.
In Turkey, the investigation and prosecution of public officials for crimes committed in the course of their duties is subject to a law requiring state government authorities, depending on the status of the individual in question, to grant permission for the process to start. Prosecutors have no right to proceed with an investigation without this permission, regardless of the amount or quality of evidence implicating a public official in a crime. They must first send the evidence recommending criminal investigation to the relevant administrative authority, which will then conduct a pre-investigation of its own to determine whether to give the prosecutors permission to proceed.