Turkish police on Thursday detained six people including the general managers of the local water and electricity utilities as part of an investigation into the death of two people due to electrocution on a street during heavy rain in İzmir earlier in July, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Twenty-three-year-old Özge Ceren Deniz was electrocuted when she stepped into a large puddle that covered a metal storm water grating in a well-used street in Konak on July 12. A passerby, 44-year-old İnanç Öktemay, was also electrocuted while trying to help Deniz. Both died at the hospital, and an investigation was launched into the incident by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The newly detained people include İzmir Municipality’s İzmir Water and Sewerage Administration (IZSU) General Manager Gürkan Erdoğan, İZSU deputy general manager Serdar Sadi, GDZ Electricity Distribution Company General Manager Uğur Yüksel and three other executives from GDZ Electricity.
Before Thursday’s detentions, 14 people, among a total of 27 who were all IZSU and GDZ Electricity employees and had been detained as part of the investigation, were arrested. The absence of any executives from both companies among the detainees attracted public criticism.
The İzmir Municipality, run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and GDZ Electricity have blamed each other for the incident.
Thursday’s detentions came in the wake of an expert report that put the blame for the incident on both companies.
The expert report accused GDZ Electricity of not having buried the electrical wires at a sufficient depth under the street, while IZSU was accused of bringing the wires closer to the surface while installing metal gratings. The report said the lack of effective communication between the two companies also played an important role in the tragic incident.
Witnesses who testified to prosecutors said there has been electric leakage in the same place for five or six months and that locals called GDZ Electricity dozens of times about the problem, saying it was not fixed despite the fact that employees from the company came to the area to examine the situation.
The tragic incident also triggered debates about the privatization of electricity distribution in the country, where the assets and obligations of the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ), a state-owned enterprise, were transferred to private companies between 2004 and 2013, during the rule of the current Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Critics link the privatization of electricity distribution to poor oversight and maintenance.