4 people convicted over insecticide deaths of tourist family at hotel

A Turkish court on Friday convicted three pest control company workers and a hotel owner over the deaths of a family of four from Germany who were poisoned by insecticide while on vacation in Istanbul, sentencing them to between 18 and 12 years in prison, state media reported. The Turkish-German Bocek family were staying at the Harbour Suites Old City hotel in Istanbul's Fatih district in November when they fell ill . They took a taxi to a hospital complaining of nausea and vomiting before returning to the hotel on Nov. 12. The following day they were taken to a hospital by ambulance, where 6-year-old Kadir Muhammet and his sister Masal, 3, died. Their mother, Cigdem, died on Nov. 14, while their father, Servet, died on Nov. 17. Investigators had initially suspected food poisoning after the family ate street food in the waterside neighborhood of Ortakoy. But that was quickly dismissed after Turkish media reported that their hotel was dealing with a bedbug infestation, with the insecticide gas believed to have seeped into their room through a bathroom ventilation duct. Their deaths raised concerns about hotel safety standards in Turkey and prompted calls for stricter oversight. In January 2025, a fire swept through a ski resort hotel in northwest Turkey, killing 78 people . …