Owner of disaster-hit Soma mine files complaint against experts in case

Banu Şen MANİSA

An investigation into four experts who prepared a report on Turkey’s worst ever industrial accident in the western district of Soma, where 301 miners died last year, has been dismissed. The probe was opened after a complaint from the owner of the mine.

Can Gürkan, CEO of the Soma Coal Mine Company, who is under arrest in the pending trial into the May 2014 disaster, filed a complaint about the four experts, who prepared a 126-paged report on the accident.

Gürkan claimed that Professor Ercüment Yalçın, Professor Eyüp Akpınar, Professor Ahmet Hakan Onur and workplace expert Alpaslan Ertürk had prepared a "biased" report that contained data “contrary to science and realities.”

He demanded that they be sentenced to between six months and five years in prison for crimes including malpractice, providing expert analysis against reality, concealing criminal evidence, and attempting to affect a just trial.

However, the prosecutor heading the probe decided to dismiss the charges against the four experts on Jan. 26.