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22 October 2004

Turkish contractor gets 25 years in jail for quake deaths

ANKARA, Oct. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- A Turkish court sentenced Thursday one of the country's most notorious contractors to 25 years in jailover the deaths of 195 people in shoddy houses he had built but destroyed in the 1999 strong earthquake , the semi-official Anatolia News Agency reported.

The Turkish Criminal Court in central city of Konya sentenced Veli Gocer to 25 years in prison on charges of causing death of people by behaving incautiously and carelessly.

A total of 195 people were killed as buildings he constructed inCinarcik town of the northwestern city of Yalova collapsed in the devastating earthquake in Aug. 17, 1999.

The court also sentenced Veli Gocer's son Can Gocer and his partner Zafer Coskun to a 25-year imprisonment on the same charges.

The quake, which killed about 18,000 people in several provincesin northwestern Turkey, was followed by another violent tremor three months later, in which another 2,000 people perished. Enditem