At the Soma Holding Eynez coal mine in Soma, a district in Turkey’s western province of Manisa, an explosion on May 13, 2014 resulted in the deaths of 301 miners from carbon monoxide poisoning and injured at least 162 others.
A criminal case was opened against the director of the Soma Eynez mine company and 44 company employees and engineers, but the case esulted in a great injustice 7 years later. The penalty given by the local court for the crime of “killing by possible intent” regarding the Soma Massacre Case was overturned by the 12th Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals, MA eports.
In line with its decision on January 27, the Supreme Court demanded a penalty for “deliberately causing death and injury by negligence”. After the decision of the Supreme Court, all the detainees were released. The latest trial was held on the 13th of April and families of the victims continue to protest against the court’s decision.
They organise meetings every year however this year they could not because of the coronavirus restrictions. Instead, they will visit their loved ones graves at the cemetery
‘These politics of impunity makes our pain worse,” said İsmail Çolak, who lost his son in the massacre.
Naciye Kaya is another person who lost her husband in Soma. She lost her brother too in another mine accident in 2007 in Söke. She says that justice did not come in Söke and the bosses were not punished.
Kaya thinks that the courts are again protecting the company owners in Soma. “There is no justice for the poor in this country,” she said.