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A court in Turkey has sentenced the owner and architect of a hotel that collapsed during an earthquake in 2023, killing 72 people, to prison.
The owner of the Isias Grand, Ahmet Bozkurt, and artist Erdem Yilmaz, were each given 18 years and five months, the Anadolu news agency reported. Bozkurt’s son, Mehmet Fatih, was sentenced to 17 years and four months, he said.
The hotel, located in the southeastern city of Adiyaman, was housing a school volleyball team from northern Cyprus under Turkish supervision and a group of tour guides when the earthquake struck last February.
The three men were found guilty of “causing death or injury to more than one person through negligence,” Anadolou said.
Cypriot Prime Minister Unal Ustel said the sentences were too light and authorities will appeal, news agency AFP reported.
“The hoteliers did not receive the punishment we expected,” said Ustel. “But despite that, everyone from those responsible for building the hotel to the architect was convicted. That made us a little bit happier.”
More than 50,000 people died in Turkey and Syria in the earthquake that occurred on 6 February 2023.
About 160,000 buildings collapsed or were severely damaged, leaving 1.5 million people homeless.
The Turkish government said that after several weeks hundreds of people are being investigated and about 200 people have been arrested, including builders and house owners.
A group of 39 people, including boys and girls, teachers and parents from Famagusta Turkish Education College, had gone to Adiyaman for a volleyball tournament when the earthquake struck.
Only four parents survived among them. He managed to dig himself out of the ruins, while 35 others, including all the children, were killed.
The volleyball team chose the seven-story Isias Grand, along with 40 tour guides who were there for training.
It was one of the famous hotels in Adiyaman but it collapsed in a short time.
The Isias has been in operation since 2001 but, according to scientific research, stones and sand from the local river were mixed with other building materials to create the pillars to support the building.
The scale of the earthquake’s collapse led to widespread criticism of the Turkish government for encouraging construction while failing to comply with building codes, which have been put in place after previous disasters.
