ANKARA, Oct 21: A Turkish court sentenced on Thursday one of the country's most notorious contractors to 25 years in jail over the deaths of 195 people who perished in a 1999 quake in shoddy houses he had built, Anatolia news agency reported.
The court in the central city of Konya convicted Veli Gocer of "causing the death of more than one person by negligence and carelessness."
Gocer had made a fortune by selling cheap summer villas in the north-western coastal province of Yalova, where whole housing complexes he had built crumbled into debris in the quake on August 17, 1999, while nearby buildings stayed intact.
The self-styled engineer was accused of using shoddy building techniques - such as mixing sea sand and pebbles with concrete - and ignoring safety regulations. Local authorities allegedly turned a blind eye to his fraudulent practices.
The quake was followed by another violent tremor three months later, in which another 2,000 people perished.-AFP
