İsias Hotel Case Followed by a Large Delegation in Adıyaman

The 11 defendants of İsias Hotel, where a total of 72 people, including the delegation consisting of 35 Turkish Cypriot athletes and teachers who perished in the earthquakes on February 6 in Kahramanmaraş, will be tried for "causing the death and injury of more than one person through conscious negligence."

Following the acceptance of the indictment on December 2, 2023, by the Adıyaman 3rd Heavy Penal Court, where 5 of the 11 defendants of İsias Hotel are in custody, a prison sentence of 2 years and 8 months to 22 years and 6 months is requested for the crime of "causing the death and injury of more than one person through conscious negligence." The trial will begin on January 3 and continue until January 5.

The families demanding justice, stating that they will closely follow the trial and will not give up, are going to Adıyaman with a large delegation to accompany the city where the Champion Angels, who lost their lives in İsias Hotel, will be buried. A large delegation departing from the island this morning via Gaziantep to go to Adıyaman includes Prime Minister Ünal Üstel and his team to follow the cases in which Prime Minister Ünal Üstel is a complainant, as well as the families and close friends of the Champion Angels who lost their lives in İsias Hotel. Members of the research committee formed in the Assembly on this issue, some political party leaders and deputies, Hasan Esendağlı, the President of the Bar Association, and the legal team in Cyprus, along with a large delegation consisting of Erinç Sağkan, the President of the Turkish Bars Association, and his accompanying lawyers, are also part of the delegation.

The delegation will return to the island on January 6, Saturday, with the 10:40 flight after the hearings scheduled for January 3-4-5.

INDICTMENT

In the indictment prepared on November 17, 2023, the expert report prepared by the Department of Civil Engineering at Karadeniz Technical University, stating that the defendants are faulty, was included in the file.

The report stated that there were deficiencies in the reinforcement spacing, hook features, lap lengths, anchor and splice lengths of columns and beams in the scope of the file, and that deficiencies in reinforcement details could be one of the reasons for the building's collapse. It was stated that it was determined that concrete compressive strengths did not meet the necessary conditions according to the evaluation criteria in the TS EN 13791 standard.

In the indictment, it was expressed that the defendants did not sufficiently comply with the regulations of the Regulation on Buildings to be Constructed in Earthquake Zones valid at the time of the construction of the building, and it was recorded that they acted contrary to the technical conditions required by science and art at that time, causing faults in the collapse of the building.

The Champion Angels Survival Association initiated actions to shed light on justice, appeal to the justice of the Republic of Turkey for the possible intentional prosecution of earthquake criminals, and start a struggle for the possible intentional trial of earthquake criminals, not negligence.