A court in Turkey has 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 each sentenced to 18 years and five months, the official Anadolu news agency reported. Bozkurt’s son, Mehmet Fatih, was sentenced to 17 years and four months, it said.
The hotel in the southeastern town of Adiyaman was hosting a school volleyball team from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus and a group of tour guides when the quake struck last February.
The three men were convicted of “willful negligence causing the death or injury of more than one person,” Anadolou said.
Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Unal Ustel said the sentences were too lenient and authorities would appeal, AFP news agency reported.
“Hotel owners did not receive the punishment we expected,” Ustel said. “Nevertheless, everyone from those responsible for building the hotel to the architects were condemned. We were partly happy about that.”
The earthquake on February 6, 2023 killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria.
Around 160,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged and 1.5 million people were left homeless.
The Turkish government announced a few weeks later that hundreds of people were under investigation and nearly 200 people had been arrested, including developers and property owners.
A group of 39 people, including boys and girls, teachers and parents from Famagusta Turkish Education College, had traveled to Adiyaman for a volleyball tournament when the earthquake struck.
Four parents were the only survivors among them. They managed to free themselves from the rubble, while 35 others, including all children, were killed.
The volleyball group, along with up to 40 tour guides who were there for training, chose the seven-story Isias Grand.
It was one of the famous hotels in Adiyaman but it collapsed within moments.
The Isias had been in operation since 2001, but scientific analysis showed that gravel and sand from the local river had been mixed with other building materials to form the building’s supporting pillars.
The sheer scale of building collapses during the earthquake sparked widespread criticism of the Turkish government for encouraging a construction boom while failing to enforce building regulations that had been tightened after previous disasters.
