A Turkish court has sentenced to lengthy prison terms the owner and architect of a hotel that collapsed in a terrible earthquake in February 2023 when 72 people were killed, Turkish media reported on Thursday.
Ahmet Bozkurt, the owner of the Grand Isias Hotel and architect Erdem Yilmaz were sentenced to 18 years and five months in prison each. Bozkurt’s son Mehmet Fatih was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison.
A school volleyball team from the Turkish part of Cyprus and a group of tourist guides were in a hotel in the southeastern town of Adiyaman when the quake struck.
The three men were sentenced “for intentionally causing the death or injury of more than one person.”
Ünal Üstel, the prime minister of the Turkish part of Cyprus, said “the penalties are too light,” adding that authorities would appeal. He also added:
“The owners of the hotel did not suffer the punishment we expected. But all those responsible for the construction of the hotel were convicted, which made us partly happy.”
Strongest earthquake in Turkey’s history
In Turkey and Syria, more than 50,000 thousand people died in the February 6, 2023 earthquake. Some 160,000 1.5 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged and XNUMX million people were left homeless.
A few weeks later, the Turkish government announced that hundreds of people were under investigation and that nearly 200 people had been arrested, including building contractors and property owners.
A group of 39 people, including boys, girls, teachers and parents, from the Turkish College of Famagusta, the fourth largest city in the Turkish part of Cyprus, travelled to a volleyball tournament in Adiyaman in February 2023.
Only four parents survived the earthquake and managed to get out from under the ruins. The volleyball group, along with 40 tourist guides in training, chose the seven-storey building Grand Isias Hotel for accommodation.
The hotel, which was one of the most famous in the city, was opened in 2001, and according to scientific analysis, the pillars supporting the building were made by mixing gravel and sand from the local river with other building materials.
The large number of buildings destroyed in the quake has drawn the ire of residents and criticism from the Turkish government for encouraging a building boom without enforcing building regulations, which have been tightened after previous natural disasters. Some experts believe it was perhaps the strongest earthquake in Turkey’s history.
