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Soma mine explosion case: Mining company’s board chair sentenced to 20 years

Standing trial on charge of “causing death and injury with conscious negligence” due to the Soma mine explosion, which claimed the lives of 301 workers, mining company’s executive board chair Can Gürkan has been given a 20-year prison term.

İstanbul

Soma mine explosion case: Mining company’s board chair sentenced to 20 years

* Photo: ÇHD

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The court has announced its ruling in the trial over the occupational homicide that claimed the lives of 301 miners in Soma, Manisa in 2014.

In the retrial that started upon the reversal of the previous ruling by the 12th Penal Chamber of the Court of Cassation, the fourth hearing was held at the Manisa Akhisar Heavy Penal Court today (June 16).

Standing trial on charge of "causing death and injury with conscious negligence", Soma Coal Enterprises Inc. Executive Board Chair Can Gürkan has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Haluk Evinç, a member of the mining company's executive board detected to be the manager responsible for emergency action plan in the expert report, has been acquitted. Mining engineers Efkan Kurt and Adem Osmanoğlu have been sentenced to 12 years, 6 months each.

While Can Gürkan attended the hearing via the Audio and Visual Information System (SEGBİS), none of the other defendants attended it.

None of the defendants have been arrested.

The families have slammed the ruling.

'Only arrested person is the families' attorney'

In a statement about the issue, the Progressive Lawyers Association (ÇHD) has said, "Given as a result of instructions and interference in the file, this ruling is null and void."

Further in the statement, the ÇHD has said: "In this trial, where justice has been sought for seven years, families were maltreated, lawyers were dragged on the ground and detained. When lawyer Selçuk Kozağaçlı was arrested, one of the questions asked to him was about Soma.

"And, today, the changed court boards and the bureaucrats assigned to the file at the Court of Cassation have once again become a party to this massare. This ruling given about an incident where 301 mine workers were massacred was attempted to be read in the face of the children of the workers who were in their cradles when the massacre happened."

"This ruling is the biggest example of the capital's and political power holders' shadow on courtrooms. The only arrested person in the file is the attorney of the file," the ÇHD has protested further.

What happened?

On May 13, 2014, an explosion in the 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 given jail terms from 15 years to 22 years and 6 months. Thirty-seven defendants, including Alp Gürkan, the owner of the company and the father of Can Gürkan, 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 Court of Cassation 12th Penal Chamber reversed the decision on September 30, 2020. It stated that Can Gürkan targeted increased production without taking required safety measures and setting up a ventilation system despite knowing that there was a high risk of fire. It stated that Gürkan, Doğru Çelik and Adalı should be sentenced for "causing deaths by probable intent" 301 times and "causing injury by probable intent" 261 times.

All arrested defendants of the Soma case were released on February 5, 2021.

(AS/SD)