Izmir Regional Court of Appeal Overturns Torbalı Explosion Sentences

The 19th Criminal Division of the Izmir Regional Court of Appeal has overturned the sentences in the explosion case stemming from an incident that occurred on June 30, 2024, at 3:00 p.m. at a şırdan (tripe) restaurant in Barış Manço Street, Ayrancılar Neighborhood, Torbalı district, which claimed 5 lives and injured 63 people.

In its decision hearing on November 12, 2025, the Torbalı Heavy Penal Court had sentenced Mustafa Koç, who replaced 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 gas cylinder company, to 2.5 years in prison. İnce's sentence had been converted to a fine of 364,000 TL.

The appellate court ruled that regarding Gülden Kul, the expert report prepared by a panel of İTÜ faculty members was insufficient and did not contain proper legal examination. The division emphasized that regarding Mustafa Koç, while the İTÜ expert report was used as the basis, it created contradictions with the evaluation concerning Kul. Noting that regarding Osman İnce, the evaluation concerning the defendants' culpability was not included in the expert reports, the division also pointed out that according to the information transfer, conscious negligence should have been discussed in the incident.

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