Istanbul — On Wednesday, a Turkish court jailed the CEO of the Soma mine, where 301 people were killed in May 2014 in Turkey’s worst ever mining disaster, for 15 years. After a trial lasting more than 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 GM 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. Further verdicts for lower-ranking suspects were due to be announced after a break. However, the verdicts given by the Akhisar court — 50km from Soma in western Turkey — were far lighter than sought by prosecutors when the trial started in April 2015. Prosecutors had then requested that the top managers be s...
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