Constitutional Court: Workers' Right to Life Violated in Soma Mine Explosion

The top court has concluded the application of the relatives of 11 workers who died in the 2014 explosion, which had claimed a total of 301 lives.

İstanbul

Constitutional Court: Workers' Right to Life Violated in Soma Mine Explosion

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The Constitutional Court has ruled that the workers' right to life was violated in the 2014 mine explosion in Soma, Manisa, where 301 workers lost their lives and 162 were injured.

Relatives of 11 killed workers made an individual application to the court on August 12, 2016. The top court's ruling was published in the Official Gazette yesterday (March 9).

While the Constitutional Court rejected the applicants' request for compensation, it sent a copy of the decision to the Council of State for the consequences of the violation to be eliminated.

The decision cited an expert report that blamed the explosion on negligence and errors. The report also stated that the ministry inspectors who inspected Soma Coal Inc. from 2014 until the date of the incident were also responsible as they did not reveal deficiencies and failures.

The court said the expert report obtained by prosecutors detailed shortfalls in occupational health and safety at the mine where the incident occurred, and pointed to deficiencies that led to the incident.

"The expert report received by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office was prepared by experts, and the essence of the duties of the people who carried out the preliminary investigation is determining whether there was a situation requiring a criminal investigation

"Considering why the people who conducted the preliminary investigation needed expert inspection and that they don't have the knowledge to make technical evaluations about the incident, it was not understood how they found the findings in the expert report to be generally and legally unfounded."

The court concluded that the right to life, guaranteed under Article 17 of the Constitution, was violated.

What happened?

On May 13, 2014, an explosion in Soma coal mine in the western Manisa province caused an underground fire in the mine, which burned until May 15.

301 workers were killed and 162 were injured in what was the worst mine incident in the country's history. The trial began on April 13, 2015, and ended on July 11, 2018. There were 45 defendants and 162 injured workers as victim plaintiffs in the case.

Akhisar Heavy Penal Court sentenced Soma Coal Enterprises Inc. Board Chair Can Gürkan to 15 years in prison for "killing by negligence" and banned him from mining business for three years.

Soma Coal Enterprises Inc. General Director Ramazan Doğru, mining engineer and Deputy Operations Manager İsmail Adalı, Operations Manager Akın Çelik and mining engineer Ertan Arsoy were handed prison terms from 15 years to 22 years and 6 months.

Thirty-seven defendants, including Alp Gürkan, the owner of the company, were acquitted.

İzmir Regional Court of Justice 14th Penal Chamber upheld the prison sentences for the five defendants on April 19, 2019. Can Gürkan was released from prison on the same day. The case is at the Court of Cassation.

(TP/VK)

Origin

BIA News Desk