In Turkey, 11 people were sentenced to life after a fire in a hotel at a ski resort

A Turkish court on Friday, October 31, sentenced 11 people to life in prison for a fire at a ski resort that killed 78 people. This was reported by Reuters.

Halit Ergul, the owner of the Grand Kartal Hotel where the fire broke out, was among 11 defendants sentenced to life in prison under aggravated circumstances by a court in Bolu province.

Among the 78 people killed in the fire, which occurred during the school holidays, when many families from neighboring Istanbul and Ankara go skiing in the Bolu Mountains, were 34 children. Another 137 people were injured .

There were 32 defendants in the trial, 20 of whom were in custody. In addition to Ergül, the defendants included members of the hotel's board, managers and staff, as well as the deputy mayor and fire brigade personnel.

The disaster prompted calls for accountability and reform. Independent experts say the hotel at the ski resort lacked basic fire safety measures.

The fire started in the restaurant of the 12-story hotel building, which housed 238 guests. It forced panicked hotel guests to jump out of windows in the middle of the night.

• On the night of January 21, a large-scale fire broke out in Turkey in a hotel at a ski resort. Dozens of people died.