Turkey sentences 104 for failed coup

Carlotta Gall ISTANBUL — A court in Turkey has sentenced 104 people to life in prison for involvement in the failed military coup of 2016, handing down the heaviest penalties possible in the country.

The defendants were part of a group trial of 280 people, mostly military personnel, accused of participating in an attempt to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Scuffles broke out at the sentencing on Monday as some of the defendants tried to attack two witnesses who had turned state’s evidence and given details of the plan during the trial, according to Turkish news reports.

The court in Yenisakran, near the coastal city of Izmir in the west of Turkey, convicted 104 of the defendants to “aggravated life,” the heaviest sentence possible in Turkey, with very little chance of parole.

An additional 21 people were given 20 years in prison for their part in the attempt to overthrow the president, and 31 others were sentenced to 10 years and six months for “membership of a terrorist organization,” the newspaper Hurriyet reported.

The men were on trial for their part in the events of the night of July 15, 2016, when a group of military officers and civilians commandeered tanks and warplanes, firing on protesters and bombing the Parliament building in the capital, Ankara, in an effort to seize power. Erdogan narrowly escaped.