Dozens of suspects will stand trial today over the mining disaster last year in the town of Soma that left 301 miners dead. Forty-five people are to stand trial, including eight former top managers from the Soma Kömür group that ran the mine, who have been accused of murder over the tragedy, Turkey's worst ever mining disaster.

The case will be heard around 50 kilometres from Soma in western Turkey by a court in the town of Akhisar. The trial is expected to be lengthy, with 487 civil parties and 436 witnesses to be heard.

The disaster happened when one of the pits of the Soma mine became engulfed by flames and carbon monoxide gas, trapping a team of some 800 miners working inside. Prosecutors say that the miners were killed after inhaling gas and toxic smoke from the fire which was caused when an abandoned pile of coal left next to an electrical transformer caught fire. Many miners died within minutes and only those working far from the center of the fire managed to escape to the surface.

A report after the disaster found a long list of faults at the mine, including a lack of carbon monoxide detectors, gas masks in poor condition and bad ventilation. "In 2009, a report said that production at the mine could not resume due to the risk of fire without all the security measures being adopted," it said.

The eight top managers from Soma Kömür who are on trial, including Chief Executive Can Gürkan and General Manager Ramazan Doğru, have been charged by prosecutors with murder. Prosecutors have requested they are sentenced to 25 years in prison for every single one of the 301 victims. Other company officials have been charged with homicide by conscious negligence or reckless homicide and also face lengthy jail terms.