Turkey’s Ex-army Chief Sentenced For Life Over Coup

A Turkish court has sentenced a former army
chief and other top brass to life in prison in a
high-profile trial of 275 people accused of
plotting to overthrow the Islamic-based
government. Police fired tear gas at protesters outside the
court on Monday in a town near Istanbul as
the verdicts were being delivered in the
highly-divisive case. Ex-military chief Ilker Basbug, along with
several other army officers, were sentenced to
life in prison, while 21 people were acquitted,
according to the verdicts issued so far. The trial has been seen as a key test in Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s showdown
with secularist and military opponents during
his decade-long rule. The defendants were on trial on dozens of
charges, ranging from membership of an
underground “terrorist organisation” dubbed
Ergenekon to arson, illegal weapons
possession, and instigating an armed uprising
against Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP), which came to
power in 2002. Tensions were high outside the high-security
tribunal in the town of Silivri, near Istanbul,
and hundreds of riot police fired tear gas to
disperse some 1,000 protesters who had
evaded a police barricade and attempted to
march on the courthouse, an AFP reporter said. Istanbul governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu had on
Friday said that demonstrations outside the
court would not be allowed. Amid a heavy security presence, only the
suspects, lawyers, journalists and members of
parliament were allowed to enter the building
for the hearing. “This trial is purely political,” Mustafa Balbay,
one of the defendants, told an audience of
MPs and journalists inside the courtroom. “Today it’s the government which is convicted,
not us.” Basbug, 70, led Turkey’s military campaign
against the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) for many years, only to find himself
accused in his retirement of having led a
terrorist group himself. The verdicts come after Turkey was rocked in
June by mass protests that presented
Erdogan’s government with its biggest public
challenge since it came to power in 2002. Police had earlier chased away a few dozen
demonstrators waving Turkish flags and
chanting “How happy is the one who calls
himself a Turk,” referring to a saying by
modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal
Ataturk. “I came here so that those people who have
been behind bars for five years with no real
proof against them are not left alone,” said
Dogan Muldur, a retired Turkish Airlines pilot. “There are a lot of fictitious crimes in the case
but no proof,” he said. “I came to fight injustice, to defend our rights.
I am an ordinary Turkish citizen, I have no ties
with the suspects,” added housewife Ebru
Kurt. “I am not saying that all the people in jail are
innocent, but I am convinced that most of
them have spent years in jail even though they
have done nothing wrong.” The 2,455-page indictment accuses members
of Ergenekon – an alleged shadowy network
of ultranationalists
trying to seize control in Turkey – of a string of
attacks and political violence over several
decades to stir up unrest.