Turkey court jails hotel owner, architect in quake trial

A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced the owner and architect of a hotel where 72 people died after it collapsed following an earthquake last year to over 18 years in prison.

The dead included 26 members of a school volleyball team from northern Cyprus. The Grand Isias Hotel in Adiyaman crumbled after the February 2023 quake that claimed 55,000 lives in Turkey.

The court in Adiyaman sentenced hotel owner Ahmet Bozkurt to 18 years and five months in prison for "causing the death or injury of more than one person through conscious negligence," the official Anadolu news agency reported.

His son Mehmet Fatih Bozkurt was sentenced to 17 years and four months in jail and architect Erdem Yilmaz got 18 years and five months on the same charges, Anadolu added.

An AFP team saw the hotel completely flattened.

The regional government declared a national mobilization, hiring a private plane to join a search-and-rescue effort for the volleyball team members.

Speaking to reporters after the court's verdict, Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Unal Ustel said the sentences were too lenient and they would take the case to a higher court.

"Hotel owners did not get the punishment we had expected," Ustel said. "But despite that, everyone from those responsible in the hotel's construction to the architect was sentenced. That made us partially happy."

The collapse of the hotel sparked harsh criticism of the government for allowing the construction of a building without the necessary permits.