Scandalous ruling in the Soma disaster where 310 miners lost their lives! 'Justice remains buried underground'

In the mining disaster that occurred in Soma on May 13, 2014, 301 miners lost their lives. In the judicial process initiated after the tragedy, 8 people, including Soma Kömür İşletmeleri A.Ş. Chairman of the Board Can Gürkan, General Manager Ramazan Doğru, and Operations Manager Akın Çelik, were arrested.

In the subsequent process, 3 defendants were released. Following the trials, the detained defendants Can Gürkan were sentenced to 15 years, Ramazan Doğru to 22.5 years, Akın Çelik and mining engineer Ertan Ersoy to 18 years and 9 months each, and mining engineer and Deputy Operations Manager İsmail Adalı to 22.5 years in prison. Among the non-detained defendants, security technician Mehmet Ali Günay Çelik was sentenced to 11 years and 8 months, mining engineers Yasin Kurnaz and Hilmi Kazık to 10 years and 10 months each, board member Haluk Evinç and employees Hilmi Karakoç, Mehmet Eres, Hüseyin Alkan, and Fuat Ünal Aydın to 8 years and 4 months each, and Murat Bodur to 6 years and 3 months in prison. 37 defendants, including the company's boss Alp Gürkan, were acquitted.

SENTENCES CHANGED IN RETRIAL

The 12th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation requested that 4 people, including Can Gürkan, who was sentenced for 'causing death with probable intent', and Board Member Haluk Evinç, be punished for the crime of 'causing death and injury by conscious negligence'. Upon this, the defendants appeared before the judge again at the Akhisar High Criminal Court. The court panel sentenced Soma Kömür İşletmeleri A.Ş. Chairman of the Board Can Gürkan to 20 years, and engineers Efkan Kurt and Adem Osmanoğlu to 12 years and 6 months each for the crime of 'causing the death and injury of many people by conscious negligence'. Board Member Haluk Evinç was acquitted. While Can Gürkan's 15-year prison sentence in the previous ruling increased to 20 years, Haluk Evinç, who had received an 8-year and 4-month prison sentence, was acquitted. Efkan Kurt and Adem Osmanoğlu, who had previously been acquitted, were sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison each with the new ruling.

18 OF THE PUBLIC OFFICIAL DEFENDANTS SENTENCED TO PRISON

Following the investigation conducted by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the disaster, an indictment was prepared on December 25, 2023, against 28 public officials who were negligent, and a lawsuit was filed for the crime of 'misconduct in office'. The 5th hearing of the case, which is being heard at the Soma 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance, was held today. The hearing was attended by CHP Manisa Deputy Ahmet Vehbi Bakırlıoğlu, miners' families, defense attorneys, and lawyers for the miners' relatives. The defendants connected to the hearing via the Audio and Video Information System (SEGBİS). The miners' families and their lawyers made statements against the opinion presented in the previous hearing. The families' lawyers, who did not accept the opinion, stated that the punishment should be applied for 'causing death and injury by negligence' rather than 'misconduct in office'. Criticizing the defendants for not attending the hearing, the families' lawyers reiterated their request for a 'lack of jurisdiction' decision. After the break, the defense attorneys for the defendants made their defense, requesting the acquittal of their clients, or if not, stating that the statute of limitations had been met and requesting that the case be dismissed. After the defenses, the judge ruled for the acquittal of 10 of the defendants and sentenced the other 18 defendants to prison terms ranging from 5 months to 6 months and 7 days.

'VERY NOMINAL SENTENCES WERE GIVEN'

After the hearing, the miners' families and their lawyers made a statement. Murat Kemal Gündüz, one of the lawyers from the Ankara Bar Association, said, "In accordance with the opinion, the court acquitted 10 of the 28 defendants. It issued conviction decisions for 18 defendants ranging from 5 months to 6 months and 7 days. The initial decisions regarding the company owners tried at the Soma Akhisar High Criminal Court were overturned positively by the 12th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation. Specifically, it had ruled that these defendants should be punished separately for killing more than one person according to the provisions of probable intent. Whatever happened, the panel of the 12th Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation was changed through external intervention, and with the newly formed panel, the decision was reconsidered, and a reversal decision was given stating that the defendants should be tried for 'causing death by conscious negligence' rather than 'probable intent'. Even in that decision of the Court of Cassation that we criticized, there was this finding: 'These defendants, affiliated with the General Directorate of Mining Affairs (MİGEM), the Ministry of Labor, and the General Directorate of Turkish Coal Enterprises (TKİ), did not warn about the grave deficiencies in the mine and did not keep records. For this reason, the provisions of probable intent cannot be applied to civilian defendants. If they had kept records and warned, we would have had these public official defendants tried for probable intent,' they said. They gave such a reversal decision. Now we have returned and come here. A lawsuit was filed against the defendants for misconduct in office. Despite our objections, no decision of lack of jurisdiction has been made to date, and today, very flimsy, very nominal sentences were given for the crime of misconduct in office. The judiciary has officially said 'neither the skewer nor the roast should burn' regarding the Soma massacre. It saved both the civilian defendants and the public defendants. The decision given is very heavy. This decision is a decision that does not provide justice in any way. They said inside just now that 'Justice remained under the wreckage'. It is true," he said.

'THEY MADE US RELIVE THE SAME PAIN'

Gülsüm Çolak, the mother of mining martyr Uğur Çolak, expressed her reaction by saying, "They made us relive the same pain over and over again. We officially watched a movie. The judiciary should cry for itself from now on." Gülfidan Köse, the wife of mining martyr Erdoğan Köse, said, "We did not see any justice in the Soma case in Akhisar. A theater was played. The processes here were the same. We could not find the justice we wanted. But we are behind this justice to the end, and we will be its followers."