ISTANBUL (AP) — Six hotel staff and pest control workers went on trial in Turkey on Tuesday, charged with causing the deaths of a family-of-four from Germany poisoned by insecticide while on vacation in Istanbul, media reported.
The Turkish-German Bocek family were staying at the Harbour Suites Old City hotel in Istanbul’s Fatih district when they fell ill on Nov. 12, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
They took a taxi to a hospital complaining of nausea and vomiting before returning to the hotel. The following day they were taken to 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.
The Boceks’ deaths raised concerns over hotel safety standards in Turkey and prompted calls for stricter oversight. In January last year, 78 people were killed when a fire swept through a ski resort hotel in northwest Turkey.
Medics were initially unable to reach the Bocek family because, disturbed by the smell from the insecticide-treated room, receptionist Muhammad Moeen had left and locked the hotel entrance door, according to an indictment presented to the Istanbul 30th High Criminal Court.
Images published at the time showed Servet Bocek carrying his daughter into the reception area before frantically trying to break the glass door.
The seven-minute delay before Moeen returned to open the door was cited in the indictment as a factor contributing to the family’s deaths, as were the lack of precautions while spraying and the absence of staff to respond to emergencies.
Although the case was initially treated as food poisoning, an inspection found traces of the insecticide phosphine gas on towels, masks and swab samples taken from the hotel. Phosphine is a highly toxic substance that can cause severe respiratory problems and organ damage.
The now-closed Harbour Suites is one of many low-cost hotels lying within walking distance of tourist attractions such as the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.
Prosecutors are seeking prison terms of between 2 years and 8 months to 22½ years for causing multiple deaths through negligence against hotel owner Hakan Oglak; the owners of DSS Pest Control, Zeki Kisi and Serkan Kisi; DSS worker Dogan Cagferoglu; and receptionist Moeen.
Another hotel worker, Rustemsha Batyrov, faces 2 to 15 years for the same offense.
Cagferoglu, who sprayed the ground floor room immediately below the Boceks’ room, was not certified to use hazardous chemicals, according to the indictment.
The company was also uncertified and used aluminum phosphide, a substance unsuited for residential spaces. The indictment also says it employed unauthorized staff and failed to take safety precautions.
Oglak is accused of approving the use of dangerous chemicals by unqualified personnel, failing to take safety measures during the spraying and failing to evacuate the hotel.
Three other tourists staying at the Harbour Suites at the time also suffered the effects of poisoning but recovered after treatment.
Meanwhile, it emerged Tuesday that two Dutch teenagers died from phosphine poisoning in another hotel in Istanbul’s Fatih district a few months before the Boceks.
Jamil Yusuf Mohammed, 17, and his 15-year-old brother Yazdani were found dead in their room in the Grand Sami Hotel on Aug. 22 last year. Their father, Rashid, recovered after hospital treatment.
Five hotel staff and pest control workers have been charged and jailed pending trial, Demiroren News Agency reported.
FILE - The main entrance door of the Harbour Suites Old City hotel is sealed, in Istanbul, Turkey, on Nov. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)
Pope Leo XIV’s 11-day tour of four African nations has given the usually reserved pontiff a global platform to speak out, in sometimes explosive terms, about Africa's problems while preaching peace and uprightness in a world battered by war.
History’s first American pope is visiting the continent against the backdrop of his calls for peace that have sparked a feud with U.S. President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.
Leo is now in Equatorial Guinea, the final stop of his tour, after visiting Algeria, Cameroon and Angola. His trip is so dizzying in its complexity it recalls some of the globe-trotting odysseys of St. John Paul II in his early years.
In meetings with leaders and with Africa's young population, the pope has also focused on themes including Christian-Muslim coexistence, the overexploitation of the region’s natural and human resources, corruption, migration and the legacy of colonialism.
Here’s a country-by-country look at each destination and highlights of the itinerary:
In Algeria, Leo walked in the footsteps of his spiritual father, St. Augustine, making a pilgrimage to the archaeological ruins where the fifth-century titan of early Christianity lived, died and wrote some of the most important works in Western thought.
The Algeria stop clearly carried the most personal importance for Leo, given his ties to St. Augustine, the inspiration of his Augustinian religious order.
Migration and Christian-Muslim coexistence were other top themes in Algeria, a former French colony which is a majority Sunni Muslim nation on North Africa’s Mediterranean coast. Leo also paid homage to migrants killed in shipwrecks trying to reach Europe and visited the Great Mosque in Algiers.
In Annaba, the modern-day Hippo, Leo met with a small community of Augustinians and celebrated Mass at the Basilica of St. Augustine, the 19th century basilica overlooking the ruins of Hippo where thousands of pilgrims including Muslims visit every year.
A major highlight of Leo's visit to Cameroon were his remarks at a “peace meeting” in the western city of Bamenda, the epicenter of Cameroon's separatist conflict. There, he blasted the “handful of tyrants” who are ravaging the planet with war and exploitation.
Although the remarks were directed at the separatist conflict, considered one of the world’s most neglected crises, Vatican officials have said the pope's Gospel-mandated message of peace on this trip is meant for all those responsible for wars and exploitation.
Leo met with both religious and political leaders including Cameroon's 93-year-old president, Paul Biya, the world's oldest leader. He called for an end to the “chains of corruption” and for upright leadership.
Biya has been accused of using corrupt means and the targeting of opponents to remain in power.
Cameroon sits atop significant reserves of oil, natural gas, cobalt, bauxite, iron ore, gold and diamonds. But revenues rarely reach rural and Indigenous communities and mostly benefit only foreign companies and a small national elite, activists say.
The pope also visited an orphanage for children taken off the streets after suffering abandonment or maltreatment from their parents.
He celebrated a Mass before thousands of people in the economic hub of Douala, where he urged young people to resist the temptation of corruption.
As Leo headed for Angola, he again addressed the back-and-forth with Trump, saying it was "not in my interest at all” to debate the American president over the Iran war, but he would continue preaching a message of peace.
In Angola, where around 58% of the population is Catholic, Leo prayed at the Sanctuary of Mama Muxima, a Marian shrine that has become one of the most important Catholic pilgrimage sites in Angola.
That church also has deep links to Angola's history of slavery. It was first built around the end of the 16th century by Portuguese colonizers after they established a fortress at Muxima, and became a key point in the Portuguese trans-Atlantic human trade as a place where enslaved people were baptized before they were sent on ships to the Americas.
While Leo didn't directly address slavery, his visit to the small town of Muxima drew reflections on his own complex heritage after research last year showed the first American pope has both Black and white ancestors who include enslaved people and slave owners.
Angola today is an oil- and mineral-rich country, yet many of its 38 million people live in poverty. Previous leaders have been accused of large-scale corruption, while the country still bears the scars of a 27-year civil war that began straight after independence from Portugal in 1975.
At a meeting with Angolan President Joao Lourenco, Leo challenged current Angolan leaders to break the “cycle of interests” that have exploited Africa and its people for centuries.
Equatorial Guinea, the last stop, presents the pope with perhaps the most delicate diplomatic challenge of his tour.
The overwhelmingly Catholic former Spanish colony has been led for nearly 50 years by a president who is accused of widespread corruption and holding on to power through the harassment, arrest and intimidation of political opponents, critics and journalists.
Equatorial Guinea's leader, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is Africa’s longest-serving president and has been in power since 1979.
The discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s transformed Equatorial Guinea’s economy virtually overnight, with oil now accounting for almost half its GDP and more than 90% of exports, according to the African Development Bank.
Several rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have documented how revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family rather than the broader population, where at least 70% of the country’s nearly 2 million people live in poverty.
In addition to the negative impacts of the extraction industries, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said Leo would raise issues of corruption and the proper role of governing authorities during the trip to Africa.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Faithful attend a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in the Japoma Stadium, in Douala, Cameroon, Friday, April 17, 2026 on the fifth day of his 11-day pastoral visit to Africa. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV attends the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Catholic Good Friday, Friday, April 3, 2026 (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
