A Turkish court on Wednesday jailed for 15 years the chief executive of the Soma mine where 301 people were killed in May 2014 in Turkey's worst ever mining disaster.
After a trial lasting over three years, the court in the western Turkish town of Akhisar handed heavy sentences to the former CEO of the Soma mine, Can Gürkan, and four other senior managers at the mine.
Gürkan was jailed for 15 years by the Akhisar court, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
The mine's general manager Ramazan Doğru and technical manager İsmail Adalı were handed prison sentences of 22 years and six months, and operations manager Akın Çelik and technical supervisor Ertan Ersoy 18 years and nine months, it added.
The court acquitted more than 30 of among 51 defendants who had been put on trial over the 301 deaths on charges ranging from "killing with probable intent" to "criminally negligent manslaughter".
However, the verdicts given by the Akhisar court -- 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Soma in western Turkey -- were far lighter than sought by prosecutors when the trial started in April 2015.
Prosecutors had then requested that the top managers be sentenced to 25 years in prison for every single one of the 301 victims.
