Turkey jails mine boss for 15 years over 2014 Soma disaster

ISTANBUL, Turkey: A Turkish court yesterday jailed for 15 years the chief executive of the Soma mine where 301 people were killed in May 2014 in Turkey’s worst ever mining disaster.

After a trial lasting over three years, the court in the western Turkish town of Akhisar handed heavy sentences to the former CEO of the Soma mine, Can Gurkan, and four other senior managers at the mine.

Gurkan was jailed for 15 years by the Akhisar court, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

The mine’s general manager Ramazan Dogru and technical manager Ismail Adali were handed prison sentences of 22 years and six months, and operations manager Akin Celik and technical supervisor Ertan Ersoy 18 years and nine months, it added.

Further verdicts for lowerranking suspects were due to be announced after a break. — AFP