President of the Bar Association Hasan Esendağlı, who watched the hearing of the İsias Hotel at Adıyaman made an evaluation to BRT.

Esendağlı stated that they did not come across a statement that had surprised them so far.

“The style, tone of voice and composure of Ahmet Bozkurt, the owner of the hotel and the first defendant, during his testimony was disturbingly astonishing,” said Esendağşı.

He said that according to the Turkish Penal Code, the trial started with procedural procedures, the most important of which was to hear the statements of the defendants.

“So far, we haven’t come across any surprise statements. The defendants do not accept the accusations or charges brought against them in any way. They put forward their defence. Ahmet Bozkurt claims he is innocent, Efe Bozkurt claims that he had nothing to do with the hotel and neither did his sister,” said Esendağlı.

He added that Erdem Yıldız the architect and engineer, is also claiming that he did not make any mistakes.

Noting that Ahmet Bozkurt’s style, tone of voice and composure were disturbingly astonishing, Esendağlı said, “Bozkurt said that if he thought he had any fault, he would have ended his life at the wreckage of the hotel and would not have been in court today. This led to a lot of reactions from the families. Bozkurt’s statement was an agitation and manipulation.”

Giving information regarding the hearings, Esendağlı said that they will take place in phases of 2-3 days, but added that the hearing could take up to two months and nearly a year to complete the course of the trial.

“I think our case will be a precedent in any case as we are waging a technical legal struggle between conscious negligence and probable intent. In the prosecutor’s indictment, there is an allegation of conscious negligence, but we claim that this should turn into probable intent,” said Esendağlı and stated that a probable intent outcome would be a great result for the Turkish judiciary and that this would act as a deterrent.