Turkey: 337 life sentences in 2016 failed coup trial



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These people were found guilty of “attempted overthrow of the constitutional order”, “attempted assassination of the president” and “voluntary killings”, according to an AFP journalist.

Among those convicted are pilots who bombed several landmarks in Ankara, such as the parliament and the officers who led the coup at the Akinci military base.

Four civilians, including businessman Kemal Batmaz, were also sentenced to 79 aggravated life sentences.

The “aggravating” life sentence, which includes stricter conditions of detention, has replaced the death penalty, abolished in 2004, in the Turkish legal arsenal.

In total, 475 people were tried in this trial, considered the main procedure for the failed coup since the night of July 15-16, 2016.

Erdogan accuses the preacher Fethullah Gülen of plotting a coup. Gülen, a former ally of the Turkish president who resides in the United States, denies any involvement.

After the failed coup, the authorities are constantly hunting down Gülen’s supporters and have launched purges of an unprecedented scale in modern Turkish history.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested and more than 140,000 people have been fired or suspended.

The waves of arrests continue today, but their pace has slowed five years after the failed coup.

Other trials – with an even greater number of defendants – are ongoing.

Thus, more than 520 people were tried in a trial related to the activities of the presidential guard on the night of the failed coup.

No less than 289 trials in connection with the coup attempt have already been completed and a further ten are pending.

Courts have so far sentenced more than 4,100 people – 2,500 of them to life in prison, according to official figures.

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