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Turkish Ex-Army Chief Absent As Coup Plot Trials Merged
ISTANBUL - Former Turkish armed forces commander General Ilker Basbug failed to appear among defendants in a mass trial over suspected coup conspiracies, witnesses said, in an apparent protest at the merging of his case with other coup investigations.The court held the first hearing on Monday combining a series of trials into suspected members of an alleged arch-nationalist network called Ergenekon. Police say the Ergenekon network, uncovered in 2007, was trying to destabilize, discredit and ultimately overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party government. A total of 16 indictments have been prepared against the defendants and they have now all been combined in a single case being heard at a court in Silivri, west of Istanbul, where many suspects have been held in an adjoining high security jail. Posted by: trailing wife 2012-05-08 |
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