ISTANBUL: Another 28 Turkish soldiers, among them a senior general, will stand trial over an alleged 2003 plan to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government, Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.
An Istanbul court accepted the indictment in the case and issued an arrest warrant for eight of 13 defendants who remain at large on the grounds that they may destroy evidence or flee, Anatolia said. Fifteen suspects were already detained in recent weeks after prosecutors expanded their investigation into the alleged coup plot, codenamed “Operation Sledgehammer,” whose first stage landed some 200 soldiers in court last year.
The most senior among the new suspects is four-star general Bilgin Balanli, the head of Turkey’s military academies who was in line to become air force commander this year. He was detained in May. The court scheduled the trial for August 15, Anatolia said, without providing details about the charges.
The first trial in the case had opened in December with 196 defendants, among them senior commanders. Most of them remain in prison. The investigation, the toughest challenge yet to the once-omnipotent Turkish military, has landed some 30 generals, or about a tenth of the total, in jail, humbling the army after its ouster of four governments in the past.
The case however has been marred by serious doubts over the authenticity of some implicating documents, fuelling mistrust between the army and government. Prosecutors argue the coup plan was drawn up and discussed shortly after the Justice and Development Party, the offshoot of a banned Islamist movement, came to power in November 2002 amid fears it would undermine Turkey’s secular system.
The soldiers allegedly plotted to bomb mosques, and down a Turkish jet over the Aegean and blame it on Greece, hoping to discredit the government and garner public support for a coup. The alleged plot leader, retired general Cetin Dogan, says papers from a seminar on a contingency plan based on a scenario of tensions with Greece and domestic unrest have been doctored to look like a coup plan.
via More Turk soldiers to stand trial.
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