A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced the owner and architect of a hotel where 72 people died after it collapsed following two earthquakes last year to over 18 years in prison, Agence France-Presse reported.
The dead included 26 members of a school volleyball team from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC). The Grand Isias Hotel in Adıyaman crumbled after the twin February 2023 earthquakes that claimed more than 55,000 lives in Turkey.
The court in Adıyaman sentenced hotel owner Ahmet Bozkurt to 18 years, five months in prison for “causing the death or injury of more than one person through conscious negligence,” the official Anadolu news agency reported.
His son Mehmet Fatih Bozkurt was sentenced to 17 years, four months, and architect Erdem Yılmaz got 18 years, five months on the same charges, Anadolu said.
An AFP team saw the hotel completely flattened.
The regional government declared a national mobilization, hiring a private plane to join a search-and-rescue effort for the volleyball team members.
Speaking to reporters after the verdict, KKTC Prime Minister Ünal Üstel said the sentences were too lenient and that they would take the case to a higher court.
“The hotel owners did not get the punishment we had expected,” Üstel said. “But despite that, everyone — from those responsible for the hotel’s construction to the architect — was sentenced. That made us at least partly happy.”
The collapse of the hotel sparked harsh criticism of the government for allowing the construction of a building without the necessary permits.