Life sentence for 38 senior Turkish army commanders over 2016 coup
Ankara, Apr 7 (efe-epa).- A total of 38 former senior Turkish army commanders on Wednesday have been sentenced to life imprisonment as part of a mass trial over their participation in the 2016 attempted coup, in which 240 people were killed.
A total of 497 people were sentenced Wednesday for their involvement in the coup, which sought to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Judges found the former military officials guilty of “attempt to eliminate” Parliament, “attempt to usurp military commandos” and attempt to “assassinate the president,” the Anadolu news agency reported.
Another 107 people have been handed prison sentences between six and 16 years in what is deemed as the last mass trial over the coup attempt.
The court absolved 121 of the accused and concluded the trial without sentences for another 231 defendants.
The Turkish government blamed the coup attempt on supporters of exiled Islamist cleric Fethullah Gülen, who denied the accusations.
Following the attempt, the Turkish government launched a crackdown to expel his alleged supporters from the public sector, the justice system and the military.
Some 130,000 people were fired and other 100,000 were arrested, out of which 28,000 remain under pretrial detention. EFE-EPA
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