Turkish court jails three suspects over 2012 explosion in Afyonkarahisar

AFYONKARAHİSAR

A court ordered on Jan. 8 the imprisonment of three suspects, including two ex-soldiers, over an explosion at an ammunition depot that killed 25 soldiers in the Aegean province of Afyonkarahisar in 2012.

At the third hearing of the case in Afyonkarahisar, the court ordered 13 years and four months in jail for retired colonel Veysal Özbay and major Ali Duran on charges of “manslaughter” and “injuring.”

The court also ordered six years and eight months in jail for former lieutenant Tuncay Aydın on the same charges.

On Sept. 5, 2012, 25 soldiers were killed when an ammunitions depot exploded as they were conducting a night-time inventory at a base in Afyonkarahisar. Eleven people, including eight soldiers, were wounded due to the explosion.

Soldiers had reportedly been classifying hand grenades when the possible accident occurred, resulting in the explosion taking place at around 21:15 p.m.

Former Afyonkarahisar Governor İrfan Balkanlıoğlu had said the blast near the village of Kışlacık was the result of an accident, not a terrorist attack or sabotage.

“No evidence suggesting that the blast occurred due to terror or sabotage could be found,” the Eskişehir Military Prosecutor’s Office also said in a statement on Sept. 14, 2012.

All three suspects were tried without arrest.

On May 25, 2016 the case was handed over to the military prosecutor’s office for the preparation of the indictment.

However, military courts were closed with a state of emergency decree law following the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, so the case was handed over to the court in Afyonkarahisar.