A court in Turkey has sentenced the owner and architect of a hotel which collapsed in an earthquake in 2023, killing 72 people, to jail.

The owner of the Isias Grand, Ahmet Bozkurt, and architect Erdem Yilmaz, were each given 18 years and five months, the official Anadolu news agency reported. Bozkurt’s son, Mehmet Fatih, was sentenced to 17 years and four months, it said.

The hotel, in the south-eastern city of Adiyaman, was hosting a school volleyball team from Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus and a group of tourist guides when the quake hit last February.

The three men were convicted of “causing the death or injury of more than one person through conscious negligence”, Anadolou said.

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