In the worst mining disaster in Turkish history, which occurred at the Soma Holding Eynez coal mine in the Soma district of Manisa, 301 miners lost their lives and 162 were injured in May 2014 from carbon monoxide poisoning, following the explosion and an underground mine fire. A lengthy trial, marked with appeals and reversals, ended with prison sentences for the company executive Can Gürkan and two mining engineers. Ten years after the mining disaster, a trial of 28 public officials, which was previously blocked, began in May 2024.

In a trial, which began before the Akhisar high criminal court in April 2015, 51 persons were tried, of which 37 were acquitted and 14 were found guilty of ‘causing death and injury by negligence’. Soma Coal Enterprises Inc. chairman of the board of directors Can Gürkan was sentenced to 15 years in prison, general manager Ramazan Doğru received a 22-year-and-6-month prison sentence, while business manager Akın Çelik was sentenced to 18 years and 6 months in prison.

Although the appeals court upheld the 2018 first-instance verdict, in a surprising turn of events, the 12th criminal chamber of the cassation court overturned the verdict in September 2020, requesting that the defendants, including Can Gürkan, be tried for ‘301 counts of murder and 162 counts of wounding with probable intent’, which opened a space for potentially sentencing the responsible to much heavier sentences.

However, in January 2021, three members of the 12th criminal chamber were changed, and after that the supreme court of appeals chief public prosecutor's office objected to the previous decision, requesting that the defendants be tried for ‘causing death by negligence’. The 12th criminal chamber of the cassation court overturned its previous decision stating that defendants should be tried for ‘causing death and injury through conscious negligence’.

The retrial began in April 2021, before the Akhisar high criminal court. In June 2021, Can Gürkan was sentenced to 20 years in prison for conscious negligence, while mining engineers Efkan Kurt and Adem Osmanoğlu were sentenced to 12 years and 6 months in prison. In April 2022, the 12th criminal chamber of the cassation court upheld the prison sentences. Due to the controversial criminal enforcement reform introduced in 2020 in Turkey, and the fact that Gürkan had already served four and a half years in prison and was three years under supervised release, he was left to serve only two years and six months more.

These sentences caused significant public outcry from the families of the deceased miners, and the families were especially uneasy with exclusion of public officials from the trial. Interviews with victims’ family members in the aftermath of the disaster showed that there was a lack of precautions to limit hazardous conditions in the mine, a lack of safety standards implementation and a lack of effective oversight by responsible state institutions.

The post-disaster expert report commissioned by the prosecution, also identified the responsibility of state inspectors and monitoring institutions for oversight failures. For instance, evidence suggests that pre-accident inspections were conducted in a superficial manner. However, the ministries of labour and social security and of energy and natural resources did not give permission for a criminal investigation against officials. They were able to do so based on a controversial law which stipulates that prosecutors need administrative permission to investigate state officials for offences they commit in the course of their public duties.

After the ministries refused to authorise the investigation into public officials, the families of 12 miners who died in the disaster took the case to the constitutional court, citing violations of the right to life and the right to an effective remedy. In January 2020, the constitutional court ruled that the miners’ right to life had been violated, opening the space for investigation into public officials.

On 10 May 2024, the Soma 2nd criminal court of first instance began the hearing of 28 public officials, including inspectors from the energy and labour ministries, who were, according to the indictment, charged with ‘abuse of public office’. The indictment was criticised by the victims’ lawyers for not including charges of conscious negligence or probable intent. The proceedings were adjourned until 12 September after the court denied a request from labour unions and bar associations to become co-plaintiffs in the trial. During the second hearing on 12 September 2024, the lawyers of the defendants required a new expert report, while the victims’ families asked to transfer the case to the high criminal court third hearing, the Soma 2nd criminal court of first instance once again rejected the victims' families' lawyers' request to transfer the case to the high criminal court, as well as the defence attorneys' renewed request for a new expert report. Attorney Murat Kemal Gündüz, representing the miners' families, emphasised that existing expert reports clearly demonstrate the responsibility of public officials for the deaths and injuries of multiple people. The court also issued an arrest warrant for inspector Ayhan Yüksel who failed to appear to testify despite previously promising to do so.

At the fourth hearing on 27 February 2025, the prosecutors presented their final opinion, requesting that the 28 public officials be punished for ‘neglect and abuse of duty’, with harsher penalties for those who conducted multiple inspections. The victims' families' lawyers objected, arguing these charges carried much lighter sentences (six months to two years) than appropriate for a case involving 301 deaths and 162 injuries. Attorney Gündüz characterised the prosecutor's opinion as ‘a reward for the defendants’ and expressed concern that the statute of limitations would prevent justice. The court scheduled the next hearing for 29 April 2025.

This case reveals a broader issue of harsh and illegal conditions in the mining industry in Turkey as the Soma disaster is not an isolated case. This case, however, showed serious issues with accountability, especially when it comes to public officials, who have evaded the trial for almost a decade.