Victims’ families, lawyers and the opposition welcomed the sentences pronounced on nine people for a deadly 2018 train accident – but also demanded further investigations into senior officials.
A court in Tekirdag province in Turkish Thrace sentenced nine people on Thursday, including the regional head of Turkish State Railways, TCDD, for a deadly train accident in Corlu in 2018 that killed 25 people, including seven children and injured 328 citizens.
After six years, Nihat Aslan, TCDD’s former Head of First Region, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Nihat Aslan, former Head of TCDD’s Maintenance Department, to 17 years in prison.
Seven others, including engineers and other administrators, were sentenced to different jail times of eight to 17 years. Four others were acquitted after a years-long trial, which was closely followed by the public.
The verdicts were welcomed by lawyers, opposition parties, victims and victims’ families but they said also the senetnces were not enough and called for further investigations into top officials, including the former Transport Minister and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.
“The Prosecutors office slowed down the case for four years and an effective investigation has not been carried out. The court case will be deficient until until Binali Yildirim, TCDD Head and officials of the AKP [the ruling Justice and Development Party] who implemented [rail] privatisation policies are tried,” lawyers from the Progressive Lawyers’ Association, CHD, which defended victims’ families, said in front of the court house in Corlu.
However, lawyers agreed that the court decision was a partial answer to impunity. “By this decision, we have said stop to impunity to some extent. We will not stop until impunity ends,” the CHD lawyers added and praised the families’ struggle to defend and follow their case.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party leader, Ozgur Ozel, joined the praise. “Today, we bow respectfully to these great families who have been showing this struggle for years with great faith, with a large crowd, and who set an example for all the victims in Turkey and those whose rights have been violated,” Ozel said.
Ahmet Sik, a lawmaker from the left-wing Workers’ Party of Turkey, said the court decision opened the door for further investigation and trials. “We know that today’s decision is political and deficient. However, the court decision is opened the door for extending the investigation against real perpetrators,” Sik said.
