Adiyaman, Turkey. Bilal Balci, a former municipal civil engineer at Turkey’s Adiyaman municipality, has requested to be released from bail conditions tied to his case over the collapse of the city’s Isias hotel so he can travel for the Hajj in May.
Request to lift bail conditions
According to Turkey’s Anka news agency, Balci wrote in his request that he had successfully registered to complete the Hajj and said he “cannot find any reason for the decision to impose bail conditions other than a feeling of pressure on the investigative authority and subsequently the court”. He said this was because the case “has been brought to the media’s attention”.
Balci was last month handed a ten-year suspended prison sentence and released on bail conditions for his role in the collapse of the Isias hotel. The conditions imposed on him include a ban on leaving Turkey, which would have to be lifted for him to travel for the Hajj.
Defendants and verdict outcome
Alongside Balci, former Adiyaman deputy mayor Osman Bulut and former Adiyaman town planning director Mehmet Salih Alkayis were handed the same ten-year suspended prison sentence.
The three other defendants, former Adiyaman town planning director Yusuf Gul, building auditor Abdurrahman Karaarslan, and technician Fazli Karakus, were acquitted of all charges and freed.
Deaths in Isias hotel collapse
A total of 72 people, including 35 Cypriots, of whom 24 were children, were killed when the Isias hotel collapsed.
Court reasoning cites earthquake risk and strength
Adiyaman’s first high criminal court last week released the reasoning of its verdict, explaining it decided to send none of the six to prison because, among other things, Adiyaman province had been categorised as “high-risk” for earthquakes.
The court also highlighted that the two earthquakes which occurred on the day the hotel collapsed measured 7.7 and 7.6 on the Richter scale, stating that “an earthquake of such a magnitude has not occurred in the Adiyaman province in recent history”. It also noted that “most” of the six defendants live in Adiyaman.
Do you think Balci’s bail conditions should be lifted to allow him to travel for the Hajj?