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A court in Türkiye sentenced to prison the owner and architect of a hotel that collapsed in an earthquake in 2023, killing 72 people.
Isias Grand owner Ahmet Bozkurt and architect Erdem Yilmaz were sentenced to 18 years and five months each, the official Anadolu news agency reported. Bozkurt’s son, Mehmet Fatih, was sentenced to 17 years and four months, he added.
The hotel, in the southeastern city of Adiyaman, was hosting a school volleyball team from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus and a group of tour guides when the earthquake struck last February.
The three men were convicted of “causing death or injury to more than one person through conscious negligence,” Anadolou said.
Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Unal Ustel said the sentences were too lenient and authorities would appeal, new agency AFP reported.
“The hotel owners did not receive the punishment we expected,” Ustel said. “But despite this, everyone, from those responsible for the construction of the hotel to the architect, was convicted. That made us partially happy.”
More than 50,000 people died in Türkiye and Syria in the February 6, 2023 earthquake.
Some 160,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged, leaving 1.5 million people homeless.
The Turkish government said a few weeks later that hundreds of people were under investigation and nearly 200 had been arrested, including construction contractors and homeowners.
A group of 39 people, including boys and girls, teachers and parents from the Famagusta Turkish College of Education, had traveled to Adiyaman for a volleyball tournament when the earthquake struck.
Four parents were the only survivors among them. They managed to get out of the rubble, while another 35 people, including all the children, died.
The volleyball group chose the seven-story Isias Grand, along with about 40 tour guides who were there to train.
It was one of the best-known hotels in Adiyaman but it collapsed in a few moments.
The Isias had been in operation since 2001 but, according to scientific analysis, gravel and sand from the local river had been mixed with other construction materials to form the columns that supported the building.
The magnitude of building collapses during the earthquake sparked widespread criticism of the Turkish government for encouraging a construction boom while failing to enforce building regulations, which had been tightened after previous disasters.
