Turkey's top court rules for rights violation in Some mining disaster

Turkey's Constitutional Court has ruled that the Soma mining disaster in 2014 happened due to procedures that violated the victims' right to life.

According to the top court's ruling, published on the Official Gazette dated March 9, "negligence and errors" caused 301 deaths.

After the accident, Manisa prosecutors asked the Labor and Social Security Ministry to launch an investigation over whether there had been dereliction of duty among mining inspectors.

Probe did not go forward

The ministry did not greenlight the investigation, saying they had already faced a probe. However, in December 2014, the Council of State overruled the ministry's decision.

Following a new expert committee's appointment to investigate the disaster, then-Labor and Social Security Minister Faruk Çelik, based on the group's preliminary findings, did not authorize another probe.

An objection to this decision was dismissed by the Council of State on the grounds that "there was no direct causal link between the actions of those who were subjected to the preliminary investigation and the occurrence of the mining accident."

Later, relatives of the accident victims filed individual applications to the Constitutional Court claiming that the lack of a thorough investigation constituted a violation of the right to life.

Top court's ruling

As a result of the individual applications, the court ruled that the right to life, guaranteed under Article 17 of the Constitution, was violated.

In the detailed ruling, the top court said that expert report obtained by prosecutors detailed shortfalls in occupational health and safety at
the mine where the accident occurred and pointed to deficiencies.

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