February 16, 2016•Update: February 16, 2016
MANISA, Turkey
The trial into Turkey’s deadliest mining disaster continued on Tuesday, hearing testimony from doctors employed by the mining company involved in the tragedy.
An explosion and fire in the Soma mine, operated by Soma Komur Mining Company, lead to the deaths of 301 men in May 2014.
During the hearing at Akhisar Court in Turkey's western Manisa province, corporate doctors said they had not faced any carbon monoxide poisoning cases at the facility before the disaster.
Mine workers generally saw doctors for complaints related to heavy lifting and seasonal sicknesses, Mehmet Serdar Ayanoglu, one of the corporate doctors, testified.
“No health units in Soma [district] informed us that our workers were identified with such a diagnosis [carbon monoxide poisoning] before,” said Caner Soyer, another corporate doctor, who was coordinating the company’s medics.
Relatives of the victims in court rejected their testimonies, saying that workers had undergone carbon monoxide treatment before.
In total, 46 people are facing a range of charges connected to the disaster.
Families of the dead miners accuse the company of prioritizing production over safety, of carrying out insufficient inspections and operating under an inadequate legal safety framework. Eight people, including two senior workers, are standing trial on charges of first-degree murder and could each face 20 to 25 years in prison if convicted on each of the 301 counts against them.
They are also facing 162 separate counts of "causing aggravated injury" which each carries a possible two-to-six year jail sentence.
The other 38 defendants, who were released pending trial, may also face 2-to-15 years in jail for “causing multiple deaths and injuries through negligence".
