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Failed coup: hundreds of Turks face life imprisonment

2020-11-27T02:36:40.456Z


Hundreds of suspects tried for their alleged involvement in a failed military coup in 2016 against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan face life imprisonment on Thursday, November 26, after a huge trial in Ankara. See also: Turkey: "Erdogan used the coup to strengthen his powers" This is the main trial of the abortive coup, focused on the events that took place on the evening of July 15, 2016


Hundreds of suspects tried for their alleged involvement in a failed military coup in 2016 against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan face life imprisonment on Thursday, November 26, after a huge trial in Ankara.

See also: Turkey: "Erdogan used the coup to strengthen his powers"

This is the main trial of the abortive coup, focused on the events that took place on the evening of July 15, 2016 in the Akinci air base in Ankara, considered to be the headquarters of the coup military.

Then chief of staff, the current Turkish Minister of Defense Hulusi Akar and other high-ranking officers had been sequestered in this base before being released on the morning of July 16, after the failure of the putsch which had caused 251 dead and more than 2,000 injured.

The trial of 475 suspects, mostly soldiers or air force pilots, began in August 2017 in the country's largest courtroom, specially built in the Sincan prison complex in the province. from Ankara.

The defendants are charged in particular with murder, attempt to overthrow the constitutional order and attempted assassination of President Erdogan.

They risk life imprisonment if found guilty by the court which delivers its verdict on Thursday.

According to the indictment, the suspects led the coup attempt and gave orders from the Akinci base to bomb public buildings.

On the night of the abortive coup, bombs dropped by F16s had targeted the Turkish parliament three times, as well as roads around the presidential palace, the headquarters of the special forces and the Ankara police.

The bombings left 68 dead and more than 200 injured in the Turkish capital.

Nine civilians were killed during an attempt to resist the putschists at the entrance to the base.

Read also: Turkey commemorates the failure of the 2016 coup

Ankara blames this attempt to overthrow President Erdogan on its former ally, preacher Fethullah Gülen, who has been living in the United States for twenty years.

The person, whose extradition Ankara has constantly requested, denies any role.

Fethullah Gülen, as well as Adil Öksüz, a professor of theology whom Ankara considers to be the operational chief of the putschists, and four other people are tried in absentia.

Adil Öksüz was arrested in Turkey a few hours after the failed coup, then released in obscure conditions, before disappearing.

Among the other suspects, 104 appear free and 365 are in pre-trial detention, according to the state agency Anadolu.

A businessman, Kemal Batmaz, accused of assisting Adil Öksüz, is among four suspects who each face 79 aggravated life sentences for leading the coup attempt.

The “aggravated” life sentence, which includes more stringent conditions of detention, replaced in the Turkish legal arsenal the death penalty abolished in 2004.

Read also: Why is Erdogan trying to “wake up” the Cypriot conflict?

Since the abortive coup, the authorities have relentlessly tracked down supporters of Fethullah Gülen and have unleashed purges on a scale unprecedented in modern Turkish history.

Several tens of thousands of people have been arrested and more than 140,000 dismissed or suspended from their functions.

The waves of arrests continue to this day, although their pace has become less intense five years after the attempted coup.

Other trials, with an even larger number of defendants, are ongoing.

More than 520 people are on trial in a trial related to the activities of the presidential guard.

No less than 289 trials in connection with the coup attempt have already been completed while 10 others are continuing.

Courts have so far convicted 4,154 suspects, imposing life sentences on more than 2,500 of them, according to official figures.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-11-27

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