Kartalkaya fire case: What happened on the third day?
The first hearing in the Grand Kartal Hotel fire case in Bolu-Kartalkaya continues on its third day. Ceyda Hacıbekiroğlu, the hotel owner's daughter, who is in custody, said she is a victim.
The trial of 32 defendants, 19 of whom are in custody, in connection with the fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in Bolu's Kartalkaya district, which killed 78 people and injured 133, continued on its third day at the Bolu 1st High Criminal Court. Due to insufficient courtroom space, the hearing was held in the Bolu Social Sciences High School gymnasium.
The hearing lasted 15 hours on the first day and 12 hours on the second day. The defendants who were arrested so far were Ahmet Demir, the General Manager of Gazelle Hotel; Aleyna Beşinci, an employee of FQC Global Certification Corporation, who was not arrested; and Ali Ağaoğlu, who was not arrested; Bünyamin Bal, the Deputy Secretary General of Bolu Provincial Special Administration; Sırrı Köstereli, the Secretary General of Bolu Provincial Special Administration; Yeliz Erdoğan, the technical staff of Grand Kartal and Gazelle Hotel; Tahsin Pekcan, who was arrested; Hüseyin Özer, and Bayram Ütkü, who was not arrested; Mehmet Özel, the Selen District Special Administration Manager of Bolu Provincial Special Administration and former Licensing and Inspection Manager of Bolu Provincial Special Administration; Cemal Özer, one of the accounting staff of Grand Kartal; Kadir Özdemir, the accounting manager of Grand Kartal Hotel, who was not arrested; Doğan Aydın, an Aygaz employee who inspected the LPG installation; and technical personnel at Aygaz A.Ş. A total of 17 defendants were heard, including the arrested defendant Muharrem Şen, who works as a server; the non-detained defendant occupational safety expert Ece Kayacan; the non-detained defendant Kübra Demir, who works as an occupational safety expert at the Gazelle Hotel; the arrested defendants, the son-in-law of the hotel owner Halit Ergül and the Grand Kartal Hotel General Manager Emir Aras.
The third day of the trial began at 9:30 a.m. with the questioning of defendant accountant Mehmet Salun. Salun stated that he had not seen any invoices for expenses related to occupational health and safety measures among his accounting documents for the past year.
I'm an accountant at the Gazelle Hotel, and I also worked occasionally at the Grand Kartal Hotel. I had no authority to give orders to anyone there. I handle the warehouse. I don't have signing authority. I wasn't involved in any inspections. Sometimes, when the authorities weren't present, we simply greeted visitors. However, I have no knowledge of any issues. I have no knowledge of any deficiencies. It's true that I acted under Kadir Özdemir's direction. We know Kadir Özdemir as accounting, finance, and human resources professionals. Since we're office workers, we simply welcome visitors and show them their seats. I haven't seen any payments made for any occupational health and safety measures taken in the last year.
Following defendant Salun, Zeki Yılmaz, the manager of the Grand Kartal Hotel and one of the defendants in custody, gave his statement.
When defendant Yılmaz began his speech by saying, "I am deeply saddened by the incident," the complainants reacted by saying, "No one should offer condolences to us, neither the defendants nor their lawyers, no one should say 'we are sorry.' We do not want condolences from the murderers. Our children are dead," and turned towards the defendant and his lawyers.
The police officers in the courtroom then tried to calm the families by creating a barrier. Tensions mounted in the courtroom when the defendant's lawyer said, "The defense is being interfered with." The presiding judge told the defendant's lawyer, "I am responsible for the order of the courtroom, counselor. You must not interfere," while the families tried to calm down by saying, "Okay, they will not offer condolences."
Yılmaz described the night of the incident, saying, “Ministry officials did not check whether the fire alarm was working during the inspection.”
Around 3:32 a.m., Burak Yiğit at the front desk called me. I ran down the stairs to the fourth floor. I couldn't get in through the kitchen door; there was so much smoke. Then I went back to the restaurant and tried to go up to the fifth floor. But I couldn't. Then I went down to the third floor and banged on the doors, saying, "There's a fire." I pulled the alarm, but it didn't go off. I saw Emir Aras outside, and he was running with us, trying to help. I didn't see how the board members got out.
In response to the question posed by the plaintiff and his lawyer, Yüksel Gültekin, "If you, as the hotel manager, had said 'notify the customers immediately' when you were notified, would there have been any loss of life? You survived from the ninth floor, but would my children have had time to escape from the seventh floor?", defendant Yılmaz said, "I don't know. I wasn't thinking about that at the time."
When asked about the emergency action plan listing him as general manager and deputy general manager, Yılmaz said, "I have no knowledge of that. That's what they wrote, but I don't know." When asked, "What is your duty at this hotel?", defendant Yılmaz said, "I don't know what it is either."
Defendant Yılmaz, who stated that he worked as a receptionist for 36 years, made the following allegations:
I was never on the hotel's management team. I was unaware of the inspections or the deficiencies. If I were a real hotel manager, wouldn't I have known about these deficiencies? Even if I had been aware of the hotel's deficiencies, which I wasn't aware of, I wouldn't have been able to impose any sanctions. My role as general manager is merely a title. Therefore, I want to state my innocence. I'm usually at the reception desk, greeting guests. One day, the Bolu Provincial Special Administration came for an inspection. Since no one else was there that day, I signed the form. It wasn't just me; anyone at the reception desk at the time could have signed the form, saying 'an inspection was conducted.' I couldn't have done anything without my bosses' knowledge. I have no information about the hotel's fire response team. I know the receptionists weren't trained on fire. There was no emergency button at the reception desk. The fire alarm system went off once, spontaneously, at the beginning of the season. We called the technician, who went and checked the rooms, visited the rooms, and confirmed there was no problem, Hüseyin Özer said.
Ceyda Hacıbekiroğlu, daughter of Grand Kartal Hotel owner Halit Ergül and a partner in the hotel, stated that she was at the hotel for a semester break with her children, not as the hotel owner. This claim drew criticism from the audience. Hacıbekiroğlu stated, "I wasn't there as the hotel owner; I was there for a semester break with my children."
Regarding his partnership in the hotel, Hacıbekiroğlu said, "A total of five shareholders were needed to change the hotel's status and establish a joint-stock company. That's why my father registered me, my brother, and my cousin. My cousin was later removed, but we stayed. I only come to the hotel on holidays. Everyone at the hotel takes instructions from my father."
In response to the plaintiff's lawyer's question, "Have you ever attended a board of directors meeting?", the defendant Hacıbekiroğlu, who was in custody, replied, "No, I have never attended. My lawyer has power of attorney."
When asked about his signature on a document related to the board meeting, Hacıbekiroğlu said, "It looks like my signature, but it's not mine. I used to get between 70,000 and 90,000 Turkish Lira from my father, not a salary, but an allowance. My father would tell me, 'This will be signed,' and I would sign the documents he gave me. I don't even know what a 'decision book' means."
The plaintiff's lawyer asked defendant Hacıbekiroğlu, "Are you a victim of the fire?" Hacıbekiroğlu replied, "Yes, I am." When the lawyer asked, "Then why didn't you, as a victim, file a complaint against those responsible for the fire?" Hacıbekiroğlu replied, "I am an emotional and physical victim myself. No lawyer told me I could do such a thing. Furthermore, there are people who survived the fire who haven't filed a complaint."
Defendant Bekirlioğlu's lawyer defended himself by saying, "The share his father gave him as a gesture has caused my client to become a defendant here today. My client Ceyda has never been an authorized signatory. She has never signed any documents related to the operation of the hotel."
Halit Ergül's daughter, Elif Aras, said, "My father makes the final decisions. We don't give any instructions. We don't make any management decisions; we don't have signing authority. I didn't even know how many shares I owned, but I learned it here."
Kadir Özdemir, the hotel's accounting manager and one of the detained defendants, was asked, "Is an attendance fee paid?" Özdemir replied, "Company executives are paid an attendance fee. These are Halit Bey, Emine, Ceyda, and Elif Hanım." The courtroom applauded when Özdemir rebutted defendant Ceyda Hacıbekirlioğlu's defense that "there is no attendance fee."
In the indictment prepared by the Bolu Chief Public Prosecutor's Office within the scope of the investigation launched after the massacre, a total prison sentence of up to 1998 years was sought for the hotel owners, company board members and managers Halit Ergül, Emine Murtezaoğlu Ergül, Ceyda Hacıbekiroğlu, Elif Aras, Emir Aras, Zeki Yılmaz, Ahmet Demir, Kadir Özdemir, Cemal Özer, Mehmet Salun, Bolu Deputy Mayor Sedat Gülener, Acting Fire Chief Kenan Coşkun and Firefighter İrfan Acar on 78 counts each of "murder with possible intent" and "intentional wounding with possible intent."
The indictment also demands that the hotel’s technical staff Tahsin Pekcan, Hüseyin Özer, and Bayram Ütkü; kitchen staff Reşat Bölük, Enver Öztürk, and Faysal Yaver; occupational safety experts Kübra Demir and Ece Kayacan; receptionist Yiğithan Burak Çetin; Mudurnu Energy Industry and Trade Inc. Company officials İbrahim Polat and İsmail Karagöz; FQC Global Certification Inc. Company official Ali Ağaoğlu and her employee Aleyna Beşinci; LPG installation maintenance workers Doğan Aydın and Muharrem Şen; Bolu Special Provincial Administration Secretary General Sırrı Köstereli; Bolu Special Provincial Administration Deputy Secretary General Bünyamin Bal; Bolu Special Provincial Administration Licensing and Inspection Manager Yeliz Erdoğan; and former Bolu Special Provincial Administration Licensing and Inspection Manager Mehmet Özel be sentenced to 22 years and 6 months in prison each for “causing the death and injury of more than one person through conscious negligence.”
(ANKA)
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