New development in the İliç mining disaster case: 'The request for the arrest of the undetained defendants was rejected'

The 9th hearing of the disaster that occurred in the mine in Erzincan's İliç district and in which 9 workers lost their lives was held at Erzincan 1st High Criminal Court. The complainants and the lawyers of the parties attended the hearing. The court, after receiving the requests of the defendant and complainant lawyers, announced its interim decisions.

The court rejected the request of the Aegean Environment and Culture Platform (EGEÇEP) Association to participate in the case, on the grounds that it did not qualify as a victim of the crime. The court ruled that "there is no need to make a new decision, stating that reasoned decisions were made in the previous hearings regarding the requests for discovery and re-hearing of some defendants."

The court rejected the request of the defendant Kenan Özdemir's defense counsel to have a witness heard, on the grounds that the identity information of the witness was not notified to the court before the hearing and that it could not be determined whether the witness was in the courtroom. The requests for the arrest of the defendants without arrest were also not accepted, taking into account the defendants' compliance with the judicial control measures.

The court decided to continue the arrest warrants issued for the defendants Kenan Özdemir, John Harmse, Kevin James Gunesch, Kevin Joseph Regan, Luis Quirindongo, Vinh Luu D Le and William Keith Macnev. The court, which ruled to wait for the outcome of the procedures to issue a red notice about the defendants, will also wait for the report from the new expert panel.

While it was decided to send the petitions containing questions submitted by the defendant's defense attorneys and their attorneys to the expert panel, time was given to the attorneys of the parties. It was decided that the prepayment warning against the defendants would be re-evaluated after the expert report was received.

The court ruled that the judicial control measures against the defendants would continue and postponed the hearing to Tuesday, January 26, 2027.

EMEP Chairman Seyit Aslan, Turkish Communist Movement (TKH) Chairman Aysel Tekerek, DEM Party Tunceli Deputy Ayten Kordu and citizens followed the hearing.

FROM THE INDICTMENT...

In the indictment prepared by the İliç Chief Public Prosecutor's Office regarding the landslide in the mine field in Çöpler Village on February 13, 2024, in which Adnan Keklik, Kenan Öz, Ramazan Çimen, Uğur Yıldız, Abdurrahman Şahin, Fahrettin Keklik, Mehmet Kazar, Şaban Yılmaz and Hüseyin Kara died underground and İsa Taşdelen and İshak Demir were injured, the vice president of global projects of the Canadian company SSR, 43 people, including the country manager of Anagold company, vice president of operations, investment projects manager, company engineers and other employees, are listed as "defendants".