A Turkish prosecutor has demanded prison sentences of more than 22 years for each of 11 defendants in a trial concerning the death of 72 people in a hotel in eastern Turkey that collapsed during major earthquakes in February 2023, the IHA news agency reported.
Devastating 7.8 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes struck Turkey on February 6 of last year, claiming over 53,000 lives and leaving millions homeless in 11 provinces in the country’s south and southeast.
The Isias Hotel in Adıyaman collapsed, killing 72 people, including 35 students, teachers and parents from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) who had flown there to attend a student volleyball tournament.
It was the biggest single tragedy in the history of the KKTC, which is recognized only by Ankara.
The fifth hearing in the trial of the 11 defendants, three of whom including the hotel’s owner are under arrest, was held at the Adıyaman 3rd High Criminal Court on Tuesday with the attendance of the victims’ families and KKTC Prime Minister Ünal Üstel.
The prosecutor presented his final argument during Tuesday’s hearing, demanding that each of the defendants be sentenced to 22 years, six months in prison on charges of “causing the death and injury of more than one person with conscious negligence,” the maximum sentence applicable if found guilty.
However, the families of those killed have demanded that the 11 be charged with intentionally killing all 72 victims.
Üstel, who issued a statement to the press in front of the Adıyaman courthouse, expressed trust in the Turkish judicial system, saying that the families will not abandon their pursuit of justice until those who committed crimes during the construction of the Isias Hotel receive the necessary punishment by the court.
The court, which ruled for the continuation of the pre-trial detention of the three defendants, adjourned the trial until December 24.
Report finds errors in construction, design
Tuesday’s hearing was the first since the submission of a report on the building’s collapse drafted by Dokuz Eylül University in western İzmir province, which found the building’s collapse “was not caused by the earthquake, but by construction and design errors,” the Cyprus Mail newspaper reported.
“If the building had been built in accordance with earthquake-related building regulations passed into law in 1998, it would not have collapsed,” it said.
The report also found the building had collapsed in a different direction to that which had been claimed by the 11 defendants in the ongoing trial and that this had happened “due to manufacturing errors and structural deficiencies.”
In addition, it found the “illegal floor” built on top of the hotel also had an impact on the building’s collapse.
It found that hotel owner Ahmet Bozkurt, architect Erdem Yıldız and civil engineers Mehmet Göncüoğlu and Hasan Aslan responsible for the building’s structural errors and that fellow civil engineer Halil Bağcı had prepared an “incomplete” static report in 2001 which also contributed to the hotel’s collapse.
‘Champion angels’
Having won their first match at the regional tournament, the KKTC high school volleyball team was asleep on the first and second floors of the Isias Hotel when the earthquake occurred.
The indictment says the building was illegally converted from a residence into a hotel in 2001.
It adds that the hotel had illegally erected an additional floor to the nine permitted by the original plan.
The students who were killed in the earthquake are remembered as “champion angels” in the KKTC. Their families have established an association of the same name to pursue legal battles and run various projects on behalf of their children.