A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced the owner and the architect of a hotel which collapsed in a devastating earthquake in 2023, to jail.
The collapse of Grand Isias hotel in the southern Turkish city of Adiyaman killed 72 people.
A series of powerful earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northwestern Syria in 2023, killing more than 55,000 people.
An estimated 37,066 buildings collapsed and over 200,000 buildings were heavily damaged in the quake, according to an aid group.
What do we know about the ruling?
The owner of the hotel, Ahmet Bozkurt, and the architect of the hotel, Erdem Yilmaz, were each sentenced to 18 years and five months in prison on the same charges —for “causing the death or injury of more than one person through conscious negligence,” Anadolu state news agency reported.
The owner’s son, Mehmet Fatih Bozkurt, was sentenced to 17 years and four months in jail.
Turkish Prime Minister Unal Ustel told reporters after the court’s verdict that the sentence was too lenient, adding that they would take the case to a higher court.
“Hotel owners did not get the punishment we had expected,” Ustel said. “But despite that, everyone from those responsible in the hotel’s construction to the architect was sentenced. That made us partially happy,” he added.
rmt/rm (AFP, dpa)
