Nine Detained in Protests Over Mobile Phone Ban at Blast-Hit Habas Plant
Turkish security forces detained at least nine people on Friday outside the Habas steel plant in Aliaga, near Izmir, during demonstrations against a newly imposed mobile phone ban. Factory workers arriving for morning shifts confronted the restriction, which labor representatives claim was enacted to prevent staff from documenting conditions following a deadly explosion earlier in the week.
Protesters chanted slogans demanding dignified working conditions outside the heavy industry facility. Oktay Turk, a spokesman for the Aegean Workers’ Collective who was among those taken into custody, confirmed that the mobile device restriction was implemented by Habas chairman Mehmet Rustu Basaran. Basaran is currently under house arrest as part of an expanding judicial investigation into the disaster.
The unrest builds upon a major industrial explosion on Monday that left 19 people dead. According to officials and plant employees, the disaster occurred during a boiler replacement operation when an overhead crane collapsed, dropping a container holding 120 tonnes of molten steel onto an industrial furnace. Forensic teams reported that extreme thermal injuries among the victims necessitated DNA testing for positive identification.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed accountability for the tragedy, though a parliamentary motion to launch a formal, comprehensive inquiry into the incident was recently voted down by the ruling AKP party and its ally, the MHP. Judicial authorities have ordered nine of eleven initially detained individuals held in pre-trial detention, while placing two others under house arrest.
