COUP TRIAL FOR 221 HAS BEGUN
Security tight as suspects, including 27 generals, are led into court to face charges that could mean life sentences
Accused leaders of Turkish uprising, including 27 generals, appear,
ANKARA // Turkey yesterday put on trial 221 suspects, including 27 former generals, accused of being the instigators of a failed military coup last July.
The main defendants are Gen Akin Ozturk, a former air force commander, and about 40 other alleged members of the socalled Peace at Home Council – a group on whose behalf a coup declaration was read on state television.
Other defendants include Col Ali Yazici, the former military aide to president Recep Tayyip Erdogan; Mehmet Disli, the brother of senior ruling party politician, Saban Disli; and Lt Col Levent Turkkan, who was the aide of Turkey’s chief of staff Gen Hulusi Akar.
The suspects face life prison terms if found guilty of charges that include attempting to destroy the government and the parliament, leading an armed terrorist group, attempting to assassinate the president and killing about 250 people, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Fethullah Gulen, a US-based preacher wanted by Turkey for allegedly orchestrating the coup, is among nine defendants who are being tried in their absence. Mr Gulen has denied involvement in the coup attempt.
The hearings are taking place in a court and prison complex in Sincan, on the outskirts of Ankara, which was built for the trial. Security was tight, with snipers on guard on rooftops and a drone flying overhead.
The suspects were forced to walk along a lane towards the courthouse, held by military police officers on each arm and each protected by a commando officer. As they walked by, pro-government protesters called for the death penalty to be reinstated and for the defendants to be hanged, although capital punishment is unlikely to be applied retroactively.
Some held up banners that demanded “the death penalty on behalf of the martyrs of the July 15 coup”, while others shouted “traitors”. A rope used for hanging was thrown at one of the defendants.
“We want the death penalty, we don’t want them to be fed and housed here. We want these traitors to be buried without any flag,” said protester Cengiz Ozturk.
Turkey abolished the death penalty as part of its efforts to join the European Union, but Mr Erdogan has suggested it could be reimposed to deal with the coup plotters.
The trial is one of many being held across the country to judge the coup suspects. The vast Sincan courtroom, which can hold more than 1,500 people, in February hosted the opening of the trial of 330 suspects accused of murder or attempted murder on the night of July 15.
In a related development yesterday, Amnesty International released a report criticising Turkey’s government for dismissing tens of thousands of public sector employees after the coup, saying the massive clampdown had left teachers, academics, doctors, police officers and soldiers branded as terrorists and unable to make a living.
Amnesty has urged Turkey to end the arbitrary dismissals, saying they have had devastating effects on the people and their families. More than 100,000 public servants were dismissed and banned from the civil service through decrees issued under the state of emergency for alleged connections to Mr Gulen and groups listed as terrorist organisations. More than 47,000 people have also been arrested for alleged links to the coup. The government says the purge is necessary to weed out Mr Gulen’s followers.