The owner of a hotel that collapsed in an earthquake in Turkey has been given a 17-year prison sentence.
Ahmet Bozkurt managed the Isias Grand Hotel in Adiyaman, which was destroyed by an earthquake on February 6, 2023, killing 72 people.
He was found guilty of ‘conscious negligence’, while his son Mehmet Fatih was also sentenced to more than fifteen years in prison.
A total of 39 students in a school volleyball tea from Northern Cyprus were staying at the hotel in Adiyaman town when it was hit by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
Thirty-five of the schoolchildren died as a result of the natural disaster, which also struck ten 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’s rubble.
Poor construction and failure to adhere to building codes, even in earthquake-prone areas, were blamed for the extent of the destruction.
Bozkurt denied the allegations against him and insisted there was no wrongdoing on his part.
Relatives of the school volleyball team that died in a Turkish hotel that collapsed during a February 2023 earthquake gather outside the court for the trial
Hotel owner Ahmed Bozkurt has been sentenced to 17 years in prison after being found guilty of ‘conscious negligence’
A photo of the school volleyball team released by family members, where 35 students were killed
More than thirty members of a school volleyball team were killed when the hotel collapsed. In the photo: Family members of the students protest outside the court
An aerial photo shows residential buildings destroyed by a deadly earthquake in Adiyaman, Turkey
The magnitude 7.8 earthquake claimed the lives of more than 15,000 people in southern Turkey and left hundreds of thousands injured.
He reportedly said in his defense that the event was “the disaster of the century,” adding, “My hotel was destroyed, along with 850,000 other structures.”
The Cyprus mirror reported that the architect behind the hotel, Erdem Yıldız, was also sentenced to more than 17 years in prison, 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 fifteen years and seven years in prison respectively.
Bilge Açık, Efe Bozkurt, Seda Zeren, Şule Özbek and Ulviye Bozkurt were all acquitted of charges.