2 Arrested in Soma Trial Released; Why?
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On Friday (December 25) the court has decided to release the shift security supervisors Yasin Kurnaz and Hilmi Kazık among the eight arrested suspects of the Soma trial, addressing the Soma workplace homicide where 301 miners had lost their lives.
Found to have genuine fault according to the expert reports
Berrin Demir, an attorney of the miners, has stated; “The court has shown its true color, cracked the door open and begun to release starting from lower levels”.
Demir has added:
“These two persons were mining engineers, shift security supervisors and class-b occupational safety specialists. Among the arrested, these are the ones in the lowest positions. According to five expert reports, they have been found to have genuine fault in the incident. What has changed and these two have been released? There are no known mitigating documents or evidence to their fault. We did not expect the judge to make such a decision even if the prosecutor wished for such. Yet we realized as safety measures had been tripled following the break. This decision is an indication of the infrangibility of the judicial reflex.”
They want to shift the blame to the miners
Pointing out to to the intention of the suspects to link their workplace homicide to three other scenarios such as “sabotage”, “an error caused by the miners” or “an unknown cause”, Demir has noted that the court has also begun to tend towards these scenarios.
“The defence attorneys have been urging upon the probability of “sabotage” since the beginning and despite realizing that this does not work, they still begin their sentences with the same. The second scenario is based on shifting the blame to a few workers such as switchers or welders and thus rescuing the ones actually responsible for the incident. Yet the expert reports ascertain the negligence linked to approximately 40 causes. On the other hand, they demand international investigations with the intention of coming to the conclusion of ‘unaccountable causes’ like they did with the workplace homicide in Kozlu mines in Zonguldak province where 263 minder had lost their lives.”
They are threatening the court experts
Reminding that a new expert report was being expected, Demir has stated that the defence attorneys have been continuously speaking of how incorrect, tendentious and premeditated the previous records had been, that they would file a criminal complaint about the experts and even humiliate them in the international arena and thus have been threatening the future experts.
What had happened?
Regarding the workplace homicide occurred in Eynez mine of Soma district of Manisa province in May 13, 2014, 46 persons are on trial among which six others are under arrest pending trial. 162 injured miners are involved as victims and complainants.
Within the 230-page indictment, the arrested suspects are being charged for “eventual intent to murder or inflict bodily injury” on the basis of Article 81 of the Turkish Criminal Law (TCK). Within this scope, it is demanded to sentence the eight suspects to 20 to 25 year aggravated imprisonment and to two to six years of imprisonment due to “aggravated crime of injury”
Other suspects without arrest have been charged for “murder on conscious negligence” on the basis of Article 85 paragraph 2 of the TCK and it has been requested to sentence the 37 suspects without arrest to two to 15 years of imprisonment and later to aggravate the punishment of 25 suspects among the above mentioned by one third due to fault conditions. (NV/DG)
* Photograph: AA/Salih Barlık