Dozens go on trial over Turkey's worst mining disaster

AKHISAR, TURKEY // Dozens of suspects went on trial on Monday over modern Turkey’s worst mining disaster that killed 301 miners in the western town of Soma last year and exposed major safety shortcomings in the industry.

Of the forty-five people standing trial, eight are former top managers from the Soma Komur group that ran the mine. They have been charged with murder and face sentences of 25 years in prison for each of the 301 fatalities.

But the trial was adjourned after lawyers for the victims argued that the eight – who were to give evidence via video-link for their own security – had to appear in person in the courthouse.

Following angry scenes, the judge agreed and the case was adjourned until Wednesday.

The eight former managers, who are in detention in Izmir, had been seen on a large screen in the court sitting on benches surrounded by police at their prison.

The trial, which is expected to be lengthy, is being heard around 50 kilometres from Soma in western Turkey by a court in the town of Akhisar.

With hundreds of police deployed to prevent clashes outside, 200 parents of the victims arrived at the courthouse with an immense banner with the names of every single victim.

Some grieving relatives touched the names of victims with their hands, hunching over the banner with emotion.

“My brother died at Soma and I lost 301 brothers at that mine,” said Murat Aybak, himself a former miner.

“I want all those who are responsible, all those who gave the orders for them to work like that to be punished for their mistakes.”

The accident on May 13, 2014 raised new concerns about Turkey’s dire industrial safety record and exposed the lacklustre reaction of the government led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now president but then premier.

Mr Erdogan had notoriously appeared to play down the disaster, saying that “accidents are in the nature of the business” and comparing it to accidents in Industrial Revolution-era Britain.

The tragedy sparked protests that rattled the government a year after the mass anti-government rallies in Istanbul and elsewhere, with an advisor to Mr Erdogan raising tensions by kicking a protestor in Soma in an incident caught on camera.

* Agence France-Presse