Turkish officers to be released
June 19, 2014
Turkish media said the release of the officers was expected Thursday evening. The wife of a chief suspect said the jailing of serving and retired officers was unjust and authorities should be brought to account.
On Wednesday, Turkey's Constitutional Court had ruled that the officers' rights had been violated in the handling of digital evidence and refusal to hear testimony.
The trial between 2010 and 2012 marked a high-point in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's drive to diminish the influence of Turkey's military. It also prompted accusations that he used the courts to silence political opponents.
The "sledgehammer" was said to be a plot by officers to oust Erdogan, from the Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP), shortly after he took office in 2003.
Under Erdogan, a constitutional referendum in 2010 weakened the military's ability to intervene as a perceived guardian of Turkey's secular republic established by founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
Wife demands accountability
Nilgul Dogan, the wife of the chief suspect, former First Army commander General Cetin Dogan, said authorities "must give account" for the four years the suspects had spent in jail.
"After our husbands have rested for some time, we will continue to fight for this country and for our children and grandchildren," she said.
Erdogan is expected to seek the role of Turkish president in elections due in August.
On Wednesday, in separate proceedings, former army chief Kenan Evren, 96, and former air force chief Tahsin Sahinkaya, 89, were sentenced to life imprisonment for their roles in a 1980 coup that resulted in torture, arrests and deaths.
ipj/kms (dpa, AFP, Reuters)