In the case of the fireworks factory explosion, in which seven workers were killed and 128 people were injured in Turkey’s western district of Hendek in 2020, seven defendants were sentenced to prison terms of 6 years and 8 months to 16 years and 3 months.
At the trial held in a Sakarya court, only two of the accused, the employer Yaşar Coşkun and the top foreman Hasan Ali Velioğlu had been left behind bars before the last hearing. And in this final hearing Velioğlu was sentenced to 12 years and 6 months, and was subsequently released on account of the time he had been kept in custody.
The families, the Turkish Bar Association (TBB), the Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DİSK) and political parties supporting the victims’ families made a public press statement before the hearing.
The lawyers representing the families of the victims were eventually allowed into the courtroom after they had been denied entry for a while by the police,
There was great disappointment and anger after the court’s decision was heard.
Mervenur Yılmaz, sister of one of the victims, said:
“No preventable death can be justified saying it is an accident; that it is fate or is due to the nature of the job. Just as much as the defendants, with their disregard for safety that led to deaths of people, the authorities who closed their eyes to this, the inspectors, and the judges that let homicides go unpunished, also hold responsibility for this massacre (…) This case is a life struggle of the working class who is seen simply as a cost item.”
Deaths in the workplace due to poor health and safety measures
According to the 2021 report by the Occupational Health and Safety Council, at least 2,170 workers were killed in the workplace due to poor conditions of health and safety in incidents that actually amounted to homicides in 2021.
Covid-19 was the most common cause among causes of death, while trade, services and education were the industries that most of the deaths occurred.
At least 62 child workers, 21 of whom were under 14, and at least 143 workers over 65 years of age died in the workplace during 2021 due to poor measures of health and safety.
