HomeTOMINE MineralNews

Five top mining execs convicted over Turkey’s worst mine disaster

  • Author:
  • Date:Apr. 11, 2019
  • source:
  • hits:963

Five former mining executives at Turkey’s Soma coal mine have been jailed over the country’s deadliest mining disaster, which claimed the lives of 301 people in May 2014 in the town located 480 km south of Istanbul. The sentences, state-run Anadolu Agency reports, range from 15 to 22 years in prison for the top executives. Nine other employees were handed shorter sentences, while 37 of the 51 defendants who had faced charges ranging from “killing with probable intent” to “criminally negligent manslaughter” were acquitted. The mine’s general manager, Ramazan Dogru, was sentenced to 22 years and six months, as was technical manager Ismail Adali. Anadolu also said that operations manager Akin Celik and technical supervisor Ertan Ersoy were both given 18 years and nine months. The verdicts were far less severe than those sought by prosecutors at the start of the trial in 2015.