A fourth report into the collapse of the Isias hotel in the southeastern Turkish city of Adiyaman, which killed 24 Cypriot children, 11 Cypriot adults, and 37 others, was completed and forwarded to interested parties on Monday.
Cyprus Turkish Bar Association chairman Hasan Esendagli confirmed that he had taken receipt of the report, and said the 11 defendants in the ongoing court case surrounding the hotel’s collapse “were found to be at fault”.
He added that the report, which was written by Izmir’s Dokuz Eylul University, would now be examined in detail.
The trial of the 11 people held responsible for the hotel’s collapse is set to resume on December 3 after having been adjourned on October 22.
The fourth report was commissioned after a controversial report into the hotel’s construction was prepared by Ankara’s Gazi University. The report was much less scathing than the first two, written by Trabzon’s Karadeniz Technical University and the Istanbul Technical University.
The first two had outlined how sand and gravel from a local river had been used in the hotel’s construction, and how supporting columns had been cut at the hotel, among numerous other deficiencies, but the Gazi University report had said a reported illegal floor and illegal lift shaft had not impacted the hotel’s collapse.
The Gazi University report had generated controversy as it had been much more lenient on the defendants than the other two, and had led to the release of two of the suspects who had initially been held in custody following the first phase of the trial in January.
