A Turkish court on Friday sentenced two executives of a pest control company to 18 years in prison each over the deaths of a German family of Turkish origin who inhaled pesticide fumes at an İstanbul hotel.
The parents and their two children, ages six and three, died within days of falling ill on November 12 at the hotel, where they were staying during a holiday in İstanbul.
An autopsy report submitted to prosecutors found a “strong presence of phosphine gas,” indicating that the Böcek family died after inhaling fumes from a toxic insecticide used in the hotel.
The trial, which opened at an İstanbul court in April, focused on who bore responsibility for the deaths.
Prosecutors had sought prison sentences of up to 22 years for the defendants on charges of causing multiple deaths through gross negligence.
The court sentenced the owner of the pest control company and his son to 18 years in prison each. The hotel owner was sentenced to 13 years and four months, while the person who applied the pesticide received 12 years, two months and 20 days, Anadolu reported.
Investigators first suspected food poisoning because the family had eaten street food in İstanbul’s Ortaköy neighborhood before falling ill.
That possibility was later dismissed after reports that the hotel had been treating a bedbug infestation. The pesticide gas is believed to have reached the family’s room through a bathroom ventilation duct.
© Agence France-Presse