The trial of 45 defendants over last year's mining disaster, which killed 301 workers in the western Turkish town of Soma, resumed on Wednesday.

The first hearing on Monday was adjourned following protests that the eight imprisoned defendants were allowed to attend the hearing via video-link from the prison where they were held in the city of İzmir.

Eight defendants, including the CEO of the private company running the mine and managers of the mine, were brought to the courtroom in Wednesday's hearing. The hearing was underway as the newspaper went to print.

Amid tight security measures and protests by the relatives of the 301 miners, the defendants entered the courtroom in Akhisar, a town near Soma. As was the case with Monday's hearing, the families of the victims complained that they were not allowed into the courtroom, which has a capacity of 400 people. After a quarrel with police, several members of the families were allowed in.

Grieving fathers, wives, children, brothers and sisters of the victims choked back tears as they arrived in the courthouse and were obliged to state their kinship to the victims during the proceedings. Tensions were high in the courtroom as the defendants, including CEO Alp Gürkan, entered. The relatives of the victims occasionally shouted insults at the defendants and let out cries of grief. "I want to see them cry as we did," the mother of one of the miners shouted.

The disaster in Soma, a western coal hub, on May 13, 2014, was initially thought to be a smallscale accident common in the country's mining industry, which has a bad track record concerning accidents. It started when a fire broke out in the mine, and soon miners were trapped underneath between flames and smoke. Those closer to the surface managed to flee to safety, but the bodies of 301 who had died of carbon monoxide poisoning were recovered only after days of recovery efforts.

An investigation found that the privately run company operating the mine and several other mines in the area was chiefly responsible for the disaster in terms of work safety. The mine apparently lacked carbon monoxide detectors and a good ventilation system. Survival rooms to provide shelter for miners hundreds of meters below the surface in case of an emergency were also absent. Gürkan and others were rounded up by police and sent to prison soon after the incident.

They face charges of killing with eventual intent and inflicting heavy injury. Penalties for which carry up to 25 and six years, respectively, but the defendants may be handed down effective life sentences, as the charges are separate for each of the 301 miners. The mine's low-level officials also face charges carrying penalties of up to 15 years for their alleged roles in the disaster.

Related: Turkey's Soma mining disaster trial begins