On Thursday (April 25) a court in Çorlu, a district of Turkey’s Tekirdağ province, issued a ruling that included lengthy prison sentences for several individuals found responsible for a 2018 train accident in the area that killed 25 and injured hundreds. The court’s decision, six years in the making, was accompanied by a march in the town center attended by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) chairman Özgür Özel.
On July 8, 2018, an express passenger train travelling from İstanbul’s Halkalı station to the town of Uzunköprü in Edirne province derailed, killing 25 passengers aboard and leaving some 300 injured. The heavy death toll and drawn out legal process have earned the incident notoriety in Turkey over the past six years.
Twelve officials from TCDD Transport (Turkish State Railways), Turkey’s government-run railway company, were defendants in the trial that charged them with varying degrees of negligence that led to the crash. All but one of the defendants were released pending trial during the investigation period by the local Çorlu prosecutor. Mümin Karasu, the TCDD official responsible for maintenance in the region of the accident, had been held in pre-trial detention before being released in November 2022.
According to the prosecutor’s investigation, poor tracking of weather conditions, lack of inspection of the stretch of railway, failure to perform routine maintenance such as removal of weeds and cleaning, and poor drainage of rainwater were identified as factors contributing to the accident.
The case has been notable for its length, having been drawn out over 20 hearings throughout the past six years. A reconnaissance mission to the site of the accident was not carried out by investigators until July 2020, two years after the event. A final hearing, originally scheduled for February 29 of this year, was delayed by nearly two months on the grounds of collecting final testimonies from the defendant.
Prison sentences for nine defendants
A total of 108 years of prison sentences were handed out Thursday to nine defendants.
- TCDD regional manager Nihat Aslan received 15 years while regional maintenance manager Mümin Karasu received 17 years and 6 months.
- Levent Meriçli and Nizamettin Aras, both maintenance deputies, received 9 years and 2 months and 8 years and 4 months, respectively.
- Railway maintenance manager Turgut Kurt recieved a sentence of 16 years and 3 months.
- Engineers Deniz Parlak and Kubilay Baikaya each received sentences of 9 years and two months. Tevfik Baran Önder, another engineer implicated in the accident, received 10 years in prison.
- Özkan Polat, the local railway maintenance and repair head in the area where the accident occurred, received a sentence of 13 years and 9 months.
- All nine defendants were found guilty of ‘conscious negligence leading to injury and death’.
- Three defendants, Levent Kaytan, Burhan Ortancı, and Celalettin Çabuk, were acquitted in the trial.
Opposition takes center stage in Çorlu
On Thursday morning, a march took place in the Çorlu city center calling for justice for the 25 victims of the accident.Several opposition officials belonging to the CHP joined the march, including party chairman Özgür Özel, CHP İstanbul head Özgür Çelik, Tekirdağ mayor Candan Yüceer, and several members of parliament. Following the announcement of the ruling, CHP chairman Özgür Özel made a speech saying that full justice had not yet been served:
“We cannot say that justice has been served in Çorlu until those who gave the illegal orders and disrupted maintenance and repairs for political reasons are held to account.”
Medyascope'un günlük e-bülteni
Andaç'a abone olun
Editörlerimizin derlediği öngörüler, analizler, Türkiye’yi ve dünyayı şekillendiren haberler, Medyascope’un e-bülteni Andaç‘la her gün mail kutunuzda.
In his remarks, Özel promised to pursue the case until it reaches the Turkish Supreme Court in order to hold accountable all the public officials involved in the accident.
Written/translated by Leo Kendrick for Medyascope
