Turkey court frees 230 prisoners convicted of plotting military coup

An Istanbul court on Thursday ordered the release of 230 military prisoners who had been convicted in 2012 for plotting a coup against the current government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The court has responded yesterday to another decision of the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the right to a fair trial of the 230 prisoners had been violated at the time and all of them should be tried again.

The military had been convicted in September 2012, when about 300 of the then 365 suspects were found guilty of being part of a conspiracy that began in 2003, in what is known in Turkey as the Sledgehammer Case.

Relatives of prisoners and other activists have gathered near Silivri Prison in Istanbul to celebrate the release of the military. Among the imprisoned former senior ranks as Cetin Dogan, former general of the First Army called Halil Ibrahim Firtina, former general of the Air Force, and Ozden Ornek, exalmirante Navy, whose sentences had been previously confirmed by the High Court of Appeal were.

The Army has stated that “shares the happiness of families of retired and active military who have regained their freedom,” and hopes that a retrial could lead to a just sentence, according to a statement posted on its website.

“This verdict paves the way for repeated trials. Now there is much opportunity for these 230 people. Our hope is that in the end the triumph of justice, “said Erdogan himself again today at a press conference before leaving on an official trip to Austria.

According to the judgment of 2012, officials had planned to bomb two Istanbul mosques and provoke Greece to shoot down a Turkish plane over the Aegean, thus creating a situation of chaos that would pave the way for a military coup.

The Army then admitted the existence of such plans but said it was hypothetical scenarios used in courses for officers.

The arrests, in some cases, military retired, had begun in February 2010, the trial began in December of that year and in July 2011 there were mass resignations in the Armed Forces to protest what they perceived as a ” hunting witches “against him. These events increased the maximum tension between the Army and the Government of the Party for Justice and Development (AKP)) Erdogan, in power since 2002 and had just proposed to limit the power of the military in politics Turkish.

Since the founding of the modern Republic of Turkey in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, himself with military past, the army erected a defender of secular state and forced four changes of government between 1960 and 1997. Latter, known as the State postmodern coup, the military pressure had led to the resignation of Prime Islamist Executive of modern Turkey, a NATO member country and whose army is the second largest in NATO after the United States.

The release of the 230 military comes a day after the life sentence general and president Kenan Evren, leader of the coup in 1980. ‘s Decision also comes at a time when the Turkish army has increased its defenses the Syrian border and where jihadi progress in neighboring Iraq has also caused alarm in Turkey. In fact, at least 90 of its citizens are in the hands of radical Islamist rebels and their allies in Iraq, according to information published by the local press.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=45504

Posted by Maleeha Tareen on Jun 22 2014. Filed under World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.