A court in the Black Sea province of Gümüşhane found the Koza Group, a company known to have close ties with the controversial Gülen Movement, guilty for destroying a village cemetery during mining. The court found the company's local mine executive Ahmet Deniz and the village's administrative committee guilty for complicity in the crime.
The Koza Group, known for financially backing the Gülen Movement, built a cyanide pool in the village of Mastra. According to reports, the company built a second pool on tombs without the necessary permission of the villagers. Despite local opposition, the company built the pool in the cemetery.
Reports stated that repeated applications by locals to the courts were overturned by prosecutors and judges linked to the Gülen Movement.
According to the Mastra chief administrator (muhtar) Alim Dabağ, during the relocation of the cemetery, between 100 and 200 graves were lost. Locals also submitted photos of bones being transferred in plastic bags and accused the company of sending armed men to intimidate them.
The court sentenced Deniz to a one-year imprisonment for "facilitating the destruction of a cemetery," but decreased it to 10 months before converting the sentence to a fine for alleviating circumstances.
The village's administrative committee members were sentenced to six months in prison each for allowing the outrage to happen.
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