Former Turkish army chief jailed for life over conspiracy
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A Turkish court yesterday 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 parliamentarians 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 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 organization.” Booing by defence lawyers, opposition politicians and some journalists in court turned to applause as half of the defense 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 Erdogan’s ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party.
Earlier, security forces fired tear gas in fields around the courthouse in the Silivri jail complex, as defendants’ supporters tried to protest against the five-year trial, a landmark case in the decade-long battle between Erdogan and the secularist establishment.
The main access roads shut and protesters’ buses prevented from reaching the area.
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