The owner of hotel in Turkey that collapsed in an earthquake has been jailed for 17 years.
Ahmet Bozkurt ran the Isias Grand Hotel in Adiyaman which was destroyed by a quake on February 6, 2023, claiming the lives of 72 people.
He was found guilty of ‘conscious negligence’, while his son Mehmet Fatih was also sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.
A total of 39 students in a school volleyball tea from Northern Cyprus were staying at the hotel in the city of Adiyaman when it was hit by a 7.8 magnitude quake.
Thirty-five of the school children died following the natural disaster, which also hit 10 other provinces in southern Turkey, leaving 50,000 dead and hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
Among those who testified against the hotel owner was Osman Akin, a gym teacher from northern Cyprus, who lost two of his children in the hotel rubble.
Poor construction and failure to enforce building codes even in earthquake-prone areas was blamed for the extent of the destruction.
Bozkurt denied charges against him and insisted there was no wrongdoing on his part.
Relatives of the school volleyball team that perished in a Turkish hotel that collapsed during an earthquake in February 2023 gather outside the justice court for the trial
Hotel owner Ahmed Bozkurt has been sentenced to 17 years in prison after being found guilty of ‘conscious negligence’
A picture of the school volleyball team released by family members, of which 35 students died
More than 30 members of a school volleyball team were killed when the hotel crumbled. Pictured: Family members of the students protesting outside the justice court
An aerial view shows residential buildings ruined by a deadly earthquake in Adiyaman, Turkey
The 7.8 magnitude quake claimed the lives of more than 15,000 people in southern Turkey and left hundreds of thousands injured
He was reported as saying in his defence that the event was ‘the disaster of the century’, adding: ‘My hotel was destroyed, just like 850,000 other constructions.’
The Cyprus Mirror reported that the architect behind the hotel, Erdem Yıldız, was also handed a prison sentence of over 17 years, while civil engineer Halil Bağcı was sentenced to seven years and 16 months behind bars.
The court also sentenced Hasan Aslan and Mehmet Göncüoğl to 15 years and seven years imprisonment respectively.
Bilge Açık, Efe Bozkurt, Seda Zeren, Şule Özbek, and Ulviye Bozkurt were all acquitted of charges.
