Sawt Falasteen - Turkish court jails 11 for life over deadly hotel inferno

Fire swept through the Grand Kartal Hotel in the northern mountain resort of Kartalkaya on January 21. Investigators said safety norms had been flouted.

As well as the 78 dead, 137 people were injured. Whole families were wiped out in the blaze and relatives put up pictures of the victims outside a gymnasium in the northern town of Bolu used for the hearings.

The owner, hotel manager and several members of the hotel board were among those given life sentences by the court, according to media reports.

A deputy mayor in Bolu and the local fire chief were also given jail terms, and the court audience reacted to the sentencing with applause.

Eighteen other defendants, most of them hotel employees, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 12 to 22 years, while two cooks and a third defendant were acquitted, according to the DHA news agency.

Bilsay Sarper Arslan, a nephew of one victim, told Sozcu TV that it was "a historic verdict that brings solace to the hearts of all the families".

The inquiry found that the fire alarm had not worked on the night of the fire and that some of the gas equipment did not meet safety norms.

"We had regular inspections," Halit Ergul, owner of the Grand Kartal, told the court, denying responsibility and blaming the gas equipment supplier.

"I did not even allow fireworks in front of the hotel for weddings because I did not want the birds to die," he said, according to DHA.

The high death toll, which included child fatalities, triggered an outpouring of grief and anger in Turkey.

People who escaped the blaze and relatives of the dead gave tearful testimony to the court over the fire that started in the hotel restaurant just before 3:30 am.

"I go to the cemetery each day. No psychologist can ease such a pain," said Hilmi Altin, who lost his wife and nine-year-old daughter in the disaster.

H.Jarrar--SF-PST