A Turkish court today sentenced a former military chief to life in prison and dozens of others including opposition members of parliament to long terms for plotting against the government, in a trial that has exposed deep divisions in the country.
Retired military chief of staff General Ilker Basbug was sentenced to life for his role in the “Ergenekon” conspiracy to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.
Announcing verdicts on the nearly 300 defendants in the case, the judges also sentenced three serving MPs from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) to between 12 and 35 years in prison.
Prosecutors say an alleged network of secular nationalists, code-named Ergenekon, pursued extra-judicial killings and bombings in order to trigger a military coup, an example of the anti-democratic forces which Mr Erdogan says his AK Party has fought to stamp out.
Critics, including the main opposition party, have said the charges were trumped up, aimed at stifling opposition and taming the secularist establishment which has long dominated Turkey. They say the judiciary has been subject to political influence in hearing the case.
The judges also passed life sentences on a former commander of Turkey’s prestigious First Army, a retired gendarmerie commander, the leader of the leftist Workers’ Party Dogu Perincek and high-profile journalist Tuncay Ozkan.
Six judges took it in turns to read the verdicts, sentencing defendants for membership of the “Ergenekon terrorist organisation”.
Booing by defence lawyers, opposition politicians and some journalists in court turned to applause as half of the defence lawyers stormed out in protest at the sentences.
“We are Mustafa Kemal’s soldiers,” the defendants and defence lawyers chanted in reference to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of the modern secular republic.
“Damn the AKP,” they chanted of Mr Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party.
Earlier, security forces fired tear gas in fields around the courthouse in the Silivri jail complex, west of Istanbul, as defendants’ supporters tried to protest against the five-year trial, a landmark case in the decade-long battle between Mr Erdogan and the secularist establishment.
With main access roads shut and protesters’ buses prevented from reaching the area, hundreds of the defendants’ supporters attempted to cross the fields to reach the court, but police with riot shields blocked their advance. Hundreds of riot police and paramilitary gendarmes were on duty.
“This is Erdogan’s trial, it is his theatre,” Umut Oran, an MP with the CHP party, said at the courthouse. “In the 21st century for a country that wants to become a full member of the European Union, this obvious political trial has no legal basis.”
Mr Erdogan has denied interfering in the legal process, stressing the judiciary’s independence. But he has criticised the prosecutors handling the case and expressed disquiet at the length of time defendants have been held in custody.
Among the 275 defendants accused in the case were military officers, politicians, academics and journalists. They denied the charges. Twenty-one of the defendants were acquitted as the court announced verdicts one by one.
Reuters