İzmir Regional Court of Appeals Overturns Torbalı Explosion Sentences

The İzmir Regional Court of Appeals, 19th Criminal Panel, overturned the sentences in the explosion case at the şırdan (offal) business premises located on Barış Manço Street in Ayrancılar Neighborhood, Torbalı district, which occurred on June 30, 2024 at 3:00 p.m., killing 5 people and injuring 63 others.

In its decision hearing on November 12, 2025, Torbalı Heavy Penal Court sentenced Mustafa Koç, who changed the cylinder, to 10 years 10 months; Gülden Kul, the business owner, to 8 years 4 months; and Osman İnce, the Aegean Region manager of the cylinder company, to 2.5 years imprisonment. İnce's sentence was commuted to a fine of 364,000 Turkish Lira.

The appellate court ruled that, regarding Gülden Kul, the expert report prepared by the panel of Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) faculty members was insufficient and lacked proper legal examination. The panel emphasized that regarding Mustafa Koç, the İTÜ expert report was used as the basis, but it created a contradiction with the assessment concerning Kul. The panel also determined that regarding Osman İnce, the assessment of the defendants' culpability was not included in the expert reports, and noted that according to the information transfer, conscious negligence should be discussed in the incident.

During the investigation phase, it was established that the business premises where the explosion occurred had been operating without a license for 6 months, and that business owner Kul filed a license application with the municipality on May 29, 2024. Cumhuriyet Newspaper reported on the case.