In the main trial of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey, a court in Ankara today sentenced 337 defendants to life imprisonment. They were found guilty of breaching the Constitution, „attempted assassination of the President“ and manslaughter, according to court documents. As a result, 60 other defendants received prison sentences and 75 acquittals.
A total of almost 500 accused stood before the trial for the attempted coup against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Officers and pilots of the Turkish armed forces are among those convicted. The pilots are said to have bombed several buildings in Ankara from the air during the coup attempt. The officers were charged with leading the coup from the Akinci military base.
Government blames Gülen
According to official Turkish information, more than 250 people were killed in the attempted coup in July 2016. The Turkish government blames the movement of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen for the attempted coup. He has lived in exile in the US since 1999, and denies the allegations.
After the attempted coup, the Turkish government drastically tightened its crackdown on the opposition. Hundreds of lawsuits have been launched across the country. Tens of thousands of people were arrested and tens of thousands of civil servants dismissed.
