A Turkish court on Friday sentenced 11 people, including the owner of the hotel, to life in prison over a fire at a luxury ski resort that killed 78 people including 36 children.
Fire swept through the Grand Kartal Hotel in the northern mountain resort of Kartalkaya on January 21. Investigators said safety norms had been flouted.
As well as the 78 dead, 137 people were injured. Whole families were killed in the blaze, and relatives put up pictures of the victims outside a gymnasium in the northern town of Bolu that was used for the hearings.
The owner, hotel manager and several members of the hotel board were among those given life sentences by the court on charges of “killing with possible intent,” according to media accounts of the trial.
A deputy mayor in Bolu and the local fire chief were also sentenced to prison. Thirty-two people, 20 of whom had been kept in custody, had faced charges at the hearing.
The inquiry found that the fire alarm had not worked on the night of the fire and that some of the gas equipment did not meet safety norms.
“We had regular inspections,” Halit Ergül, owner of the Grand Kartal, who was given a life sentence, told the court. He denied responsibility and blamed the gas equipment supplier.
“I did not even allow fireworks in front of the hotel for weddings because I did not want the birds to die,” he said, according to the DHA news agency.
People who escaped the blaze and relatives of the dead gave tearful testimony to the court about the fire, which started in a hotel restaurant just before 3:30 a.m.
“I go to the cemetery every day. No psychologist can ease such a pain,” said Hilmi Altın, who lost his wife and 9-year-old daughter in the disaster.
Relative of the victims expressed satisfaction with the ruling, describing the sentences as long-awaited justice after a lengthy legal process.
Abdurrahman Gençbay, a senior judge at Turkey’s Council of State who lost his son in the fire, praised the verdict, calling it a landmark decision in Turkish legal history.
“This is a remarkable ruling that could set a precedent in Turkish law,” Gençbay said. “Today, the court has shown the entire country that there are still judges in Bolu.”
Families who lost loved ones in the fire wept and embraced one another, some holding photographs of the victims as they tried to console each other.
The fire occurred during the winter school break, with 238 guests at the hotel. Many survivors said there were no functioning alarms, fire doors or safe exits. Several guests were forced to escape from windows using bedsheets as ropes.
The Grand Kartal Hotel blaze has attracted widespread criticism of state oversight of tourism facilities in Turkey. Families of the victims say negligence and regulatory failures contributed to the scale of the disaster.
Turkish Minute with reporting from Agence France-Presse