Turkish court jails top bosses over 2014 mine disaster that killed 301
ISTANBUL: A Turkish court on Wednesday handed jail terms of up to 22 years to five top managers convicted of negligence over Turkey's worst ever mining disaster, which claimed hundreds of lives.
The accident in May 2014 killed 301 people when one of the pits of the Soma mine became engulfed by flames and carbon monoxide gas, trapping 800 miners working inside.
The tragedy sparked protests and raised new concerns about Turkey's dire industrial safety record. Relatives and the opposition denounced on Wednesday's verdicts -- handed out on negligence rather than murder convictions -- as outrageously lenient after prosecutors had initially demanded terms of 301 times 25 years for all the main suspects. After a trial lasting over three years, the court in the western Turkish town of Akhisar jailed the former CEO of the Soma mine, Can Gurkan, for 15 years, 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.
The chairman of the Soma Mines Company which owned the mine, Alp Gurkan, the father of Can Gurkan, was acquitted along with 36 other suspects.
Out of 51 suspects on trial, nine other lower-ranking mine managers were given jail terms of six to 11 years. The Dogan news agency said the verdicts prompted victims' lawyers and families to walk out of court in protest. Emergency services needed to be called as several collapsed due to stress, it added.
The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) slammed the sentences, which it said were drawn up in advance as a result of pressure from the company and the authorities.
"Justice has not come for Soma and... the law has, once again, gone bankrupt," its deputy chairman Veli Agbaba said in a statement.
Alp Gurkan had denied responsibility for the disaster, asking when the trial opened in April 2015 to be freed "to do our own research and shed light on the accident".
Turkey's Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK) expressed outrage that the convictions had been made on the lesser negligence charges, arguing the mine had failed to take necessary precautions and had overworked its employees.
"Three-hundred-and-one of our worker brothers lost their lives before our eyes as a result as a slaughter," said its chairwoman Arzu Cerkezoglu.
"This is not called negligence or a mistake. It is a crime. We do not accept this decision," she added in a statement.
The accident on May 13, 2014, exposed the lacklustre reaction of the government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time.
Prosecutors said that the miners were killed after inhaling gas and toxic smoke from the fire which was caused when an abandoned pile of coal left next to an electrical transformer caught fire. Erdogan had notoriously appeared to play down the disaster, saying that "accidents are in the nature of the business" and comparing it to accidents in industrial revolution-era Britain. SAN FRANCISCO: Uber Technologies Inc's Chief People Officer Liane Hornsey resigned in an email to staff on Tuesday, following an investigation into how she handled allegations of racial discrimination at the ride-hailing firm.
The resignation comes after Reuters contacted Uber on Monday about the previously unreported investigation into accusations from anonymous whistleblowers that Hornsey had systematically dismissed internal complaints of racial discrimination.
Hornsey is head of Uber's human resources department and one of the firm's top spokespeople on diversity and discrimination issues. She had been in the role for about 18 months, as the company was rocked by claims of widespread issues of gender discrimination and sexual harassment.
The allegations raise questions about Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi's efforts to change the toxic culture of the firm after he took over in August last year from former CEO Travis Kalanick following a series of scandals.
Khosrowshahi praised Hornsey in an email to employees, which was seen by Reuters, as "incredibly talented, creative, and hard-working." He gave no reason for her departure.
Hornsey acknowledged in a separate email to her team at Uber, also seen by Reuters, that her exit "comes a little out of the blue for some of you, but I have been thinking about this for a while."
She also gave no reason for her resignation and has not responded to requests for comment about the investigation.
The allegations against her and Uber's human resources department more broadly were made by an anonymous group that claims to be Uber employees of color, members of the group told Reuters. SEOUL: Korean Air's chairman was disqualified from heading an academic foundation by the government on Wednesday and his son stripped of his degree in the latest woes to assail the dynasty.
Cho Yang-ho's wife and daughters were already being investigated over alleged assaults, smuggling and illegal hiring of foreign housekeepers.
The two younger women, who held management positions at Korean Air, became viral sensations for temper tantrums dubbed the "nut rage" and "water rage" scandals online. And the flag carrier's 69-year-old patriarch was himself grilled by prosecutors late last month over alleged tax evasion and other crimes.
On Wednesday the education
They alleged Hornsey had used discriminatory language and made derogatory comments about Uber Global Head of Diversity and Inclusion Bernard Coleman, and had denigrated and threatened former Uber executive Bozoma Saint John, who left the company in June.
"This person ultimately was the reason behind (Saint John's) departure from Uber," the anonymous employees said in an email, referring to Hornsey.
Saint John joined Uber from Apple Inc in June, 2017 but left only a year later to join Endeavor, the parent company of several talent agencies. She declined to comment, telling Reuters by phone: "I don't have anything to say about my experience there."
Coleman, who came to Uber in 2017 after serving as the chief diversity and human resources officer of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, also declined to comment. Some of the allegations were substantiated, investigators from law firm Gibson Dunn told the employees in a May 15 email that was seen by Reuters.
It is not clear which of the allegations were substantiated, but the investigators shared their "thoughts regarding several options to address concerns regarding Ms. Hornsey" with Khosrowshahi, they wrote ministry withdrew its approval of Cho as head of the Jungseok-inha School Foundation, which controls Inha University in Incheon, citing a spate of irregularities.
It also asserted that the school's admission and graduation of Cho's son Cho Won-tae, now the Korean Air president, were flawed and cancelled his bachelor's degree.
The son was allegedly short in the email. The investigators added that they were commencing another investigation after receiving a complaint from another anonymous Uber employee regarding "allegations that appear to relate in some ways."
UNRESOLVED COMPLAINTS
The complaints against Hornsey come about a year after Uber was embroiled in widespread allegations of gender discrimination and sexual harassment, triggering an investigation by former U.S Attorney General Eric Holder and ultimately Kalanick's resignation.
Uber in March agreed to pay $10 million to settle a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination against more than 400 women and minorities brought by three women engineers. One of the women removed herself from the class-action and sued the company in May alleging discrimination based on gender and race. The employees behind the latest allegations said complaints filed to Uber's anonymous tip line often were left unresolved or were dismissed, especially if they dealt with issues of race.
They also accused the company of ignoring a boardapproved recommendation by Holder that its chief diversity officer report directly to the CEO or COO. of the required academic standards when he transferred to the university from a US college in 1998, and was given a degree in business administration in 2003 despite not having the necessary points, the ministry said.
A month-long investigation also found the school awarded contracts worth millions of dollars to companies associated with the Cho family, disadvantaging potential competitors.
"We will take stern measures ... so that irregularities that have been found can be corrected at an early date," education minister Kim Sang-gon said in a statement, adding the ministry would ask prosecutors to start a criminal inquiry into Cho and his wife Lee Myung-hee.