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Tanks in the streets of Ankara: In July 2016, the coup in Turkey failed
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Six years after the failed coup in Turkey, 71 former military students who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for taking part in the attempted coup have been released.
The release came after a decision by the Court of Cassation, Turkish media reported on Wednesday.
A total of 355 military students were arrested after the coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The Court of Cassation on Tuesday overturned the convictions of 116 cadets and ordered the release of 71, lawyer Cemil Cicel confirmed.
The other appeal procedures have not yet been completed.
The relatives of the convicts had protested the detention of the military students for years, arguing that they had no power to disobey the orders.
They were convicted on the basis of empty files.
"Her innocence has finally been proven, but six years of her life were stolen," criticized opposition MP Ömer Faruk Gergerlioglu, who had repeatedly raised the cases in parliament.
Around 250 people were killed and more than 2,000 others injured in the attempted coup in mid-July 2016.
The Turkish government blames the movement of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen for the attempted coup.
Gülen has lived in US exile since 1999 and denies the allegations.
The Turkish government accuses Gülen of deliberately infiltrating state institutions such as the army.
After the attempted coup, the Turkish government drastically tightened its crackdown on the opposition.
Hundreds of court cases have been launched across the country.
According to official figures, almost 5,000 people were sentenced, almost 3,000 of them to life imprisonment.
as /AFP