Among those convicted are the owner and director of the establishment, whose investigation revealed numerous breaches of safety standards, according to Turkish media present at the trial.
A deputy mayor of Bolu and the city’s fire chief also received life sentences. The court must detail the penalties.
Thirty-two people, including 20 in pre-trial detention, appeared in total during the trial, where relatives of the victims displayed the faces of their loved ones outside a gymnasium requisitioned to host the proceedings.
The investigation revealed that the fire alarm at the Grand Kartal, a high-end hotel in the Kartalkaya ski resort, had not worked on the night of the tragedy, and that some of its gas installations were not up to standard.
“We had regular inspections,” defended Halit Ergül, the owner of Grand Kartal, sentenced to life, during the trial, who blamed the gas supplier.
“I didn’t even allow fireworks in front of the hotel during weddings to prevent the birds from dying,” he told the judges, according to the private news agency DHA.
Survivors and relatives of the victims took to the stand, often in tears, each giving their story of the fire that started in a hotel restaurant shortly before 3:30 a.m. on the night of January 21.
The very heavy toll, and the presence of around thirty children among the 78 victims, provoked strong emotion and deep anger, fueled by accusations of negligence.
