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The Grand Turk
Turkey Jails 151 for Life in 'Coup Ringleaders' Trial
2019-06-21
[AnNahar] A Ottoman Turkish court on Thursday gave life sentences to 151 people including senior military officers in one of the biggest trials over the 2016 failed bid to overthrow President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
The judge handed 128 of those convicted between one and 141 aggravated life terms each over the deaths of 139 people, for "violating the constitution" and "attempting to assassinate the president," the private DHA news agency reported.

Such sentences carry harsher prison conditions.

A further 23 individuals were given customary life sentences, the agency said, while 27 suspects received prison sentences of up to 20 years.

Among the suspects was US-based Moslem preacher Fethullah Gülen
... a Turkish preacher living in Pennsylvania whom the current govt of Turkey considers responsible for all the ills afflicting Turkey and possibly the entire world. Gülen and Erdogan used to be really good friends, but only one of them could be sultan, and Gülen lost...
, whom The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
accuses of ordering the attempted putsch in which left hundreds were killed and thousands more injured.

Gulen strongly denies the claims. Turkey has failed to secure his extradition.

Former air force chief Akin Ozturk and Mehmet Disli, the brother of former ruling party politician Saban Disli, who since September has served as Turkey's ambassador to the Netherlands, were among those convicted.

Lieutenant Colonel Levent Turkkan, who was the aide to then Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar, was given one aggravated life sentence, state news agency Anadolu reported. Akar was appointed defence minister in July 2018.

Thirty-three suspects were acquitted.

- ERDOGAN AIDE SENTENCED -
The trial began in May 2017 in the country's largest courtroom inside a prison complex in Sincan, outside the capital Ankara.

The court also handed down an aggravated life sentence for "violating the constitution" to Colonel Ali Yazici, Erdogan's former military aide, Anadolu reported.

Yazici was already sentenced to 18 years in jail in 2017 after a trial of dozens who plotted to assassinate Erdogan at a luxury Aegean hotel during the coup attempt.

Former brigadier general Gokhan Sahin Sonmezates, who was suspected of leading an liquidation attempt against Erdogan on the night of the coup bid, was given 137 aggravated life sentences and a 540-year prison sentence, Anadolu said.

The judge ordered the case of 13 runaways including Gulen to be separated from the main coup ringleaders' trial.

The failed overthrow left 248 people dead, according to the Ottoman Turkish presidency, not including 24 coup-plotters killed on the night.

Dozens of those on trial were accused of being members of the "Peace At Home Council", the name the plotters apparently gave themselves on the night of the coup attempt.

Since July 2016, tens of thousands of people have been arrested over alleged links to the coup bid under a two-year state of emergency which ended last year.

But nationwide raids by police have continued and there are almost daily reports of public prosecutors issuing detention warrants for suspects over Gulen ties.

Nearly 290 coup-linked court cases have been launched, 261 of which ended with 3,239 defendants convicted, according to justice ministry figures given to AFP before the verdicts.
Posted by:trailing wife

#1  I wonder how many people are left out of prison in Turkey ?
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-06-21 12:57  

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