The owner of a Turkish hotel and 10 others have been sentenced to life in prison following the deadliest fire in the country’s history.
The blaze at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Bolu broke out during school holidays in January, killed 78 people including 34 children.
Owner Halit Ergül, his wife and two daughters were handed the maximum penalty after being found guilty of severe negligence, along with Bolu’s deputy mayor and the local fire chief.
In total, there were 32 people facing charges over the fire which tore through the building in the early hours of the morning, resulting in some residents jumping from the 12-storey building to escape the flames.
In addition, 137 people were injured in the blaze at the northern mountain resort of Kartalkaya.
Hilmi Altin, who lost his wife and nine-year-old daughter, told AFP news agency: “I go to the cemetery each day. No psychologist can ease such a pain.”
An inquiry found that some safety equipment had not worked at the time of the fire, which started in the hotel’s restaurant. Also, some of the building’s gas equipment did not meet safety standards.
Ergul denied responsibility. He said the hotel had regular inspections and blamed the gas supplier. He also said the tourism ministry was responsible for oversight.
“If I had foreseen the risk, I would have closed the hotel myself,” he told the hearing which took place inside a specially constructed court room at a local school.
A further 18 defendants received sentences ranging from 12 to 22 years. Most were hotel employees. Others were acquitted, including two cooks.
The Bolu mountains are popular with skiers from Istanbul and Turkey’s capital Ankara, which is about 170km (105 miles) away. At the time of the disaster, the hotel was operating at high occupancy as it was the start of school holidays.