Turkey court jails over 300 for life in mass trial for failed 2016 coup
475 defendants in case, which began in August 2017, included ex-pilots, army commanders
A Turkish court handed down over 300 life sentences on Thursday in one of the largest trials to result from the failed 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The 475 defendants in the trial, which began in August 2017, included former pilots and army commanders accused of leading the attempted power grab from the Akinci airbase near Ankara, where Defense Minister Hulusi Akar — then chief of staff — was held on the night of the coup, which is widely believed to have been coordinated by US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen, once an ally of Erdogan.
The court jailed 337 of the defendants for life. Sixty more were given jail sentences, while 75 were acquitted.
A businessman named Kemal Batmaz was also handed multiple aggravated life sentences for his involvement in the attempted overthrow of Erdogan. An aggravated life sentence is the maximum punishment applicable in the Turkish judicial system.
Four ringleaders were sentenced to a total of 79 aggravated life sentences for charges of attempting to assassinate Erdogan, murder, and seeking to overthrow the constitutional order.
Several former air force pilots, including one who bombed the parliament building and another who killed 15 people near the presidential palace during the coup attempt, were also given aggravated life sentences.
Akin Ozturk, the former air force commander who was at the Akinci airbase with his team on the night
of the coup, was given an aggravated life sentence for managing the coup, bombing several government buildings and attempting to kill Erdogan.
Turkey’s largest courtroom was packed with dozens of security personnel and the presiding judge ordered one protesting defendant to “sit down!” several times before reading the verdict.
“Justice has been served,” Ufuk Yegin, who represents a victims’ families association, told AFP.
“It was a very important trial for the Turkish judicial system and for the country,” added Muaz Ergezen, another lawyer for the victims.
“It is a trial that will go down in history.” Erdogan was on vacation in southern Turkey at the time. Four years on from the failed coup in which 251 people died and more than 2,000 were injured, Turkish authorities are still carrying out nationwide operations against the member of the Gulen movement, which is blamed for instigating the putsch.
More than 100,000 public sector employees and some 20,000 military officers were sacked or suspended over links to the movement. Since July 2016, over 2,800 people have been jailed for life, and there are currently 10 mass trials ongoing across the country. The trial of the “assassination team” who attempted to storm Erdogan’s hotel in the Aegean resort town of Mugla during the failed coup will resume on Nov. 30.