Turkey Court Rejects Retrial over Coup Plot
A Turkish court on Friday rejected a retrial request by dozens of people including former army chiefs, lawyers and journalists convicted in 2012 over an alleged coup plot.
Lawyers filed the request this month after the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan suggested it was open to the retrials of hundreds of army officers despite its long campaign to curb the once all-powerful military.
Last October, an appeals court had ruled for the retrial of 88 people including former army chiefs who had been sentenced to prison terms of up to 20 years.
They were convicted in 2012 when a court ruled that an army exercise in 2003, codenamed "Sledgehammer", was an undercover coup plot against Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party.
The Istanbul High Criminal Court ruled however that no legal justifications had been submitted for any retrial, Hurriyet newspaper said.
In 2013, hundreds of military officers were convicted and given long jail terms for their role in the so-called "Ergenekon" conspiracy, another alleged plot to overthrow the government.
The army earlier this month demanded retrials in both cases, claiming the evidence was fabricated.
The mass trials succeeded in clipping the wings of the army, which considers itself the guardian of the secular state and has waged three coups since 1960.
But Erdogan said he would not oppose the idea of possible retrials, in a move seen as a dramatic turnaround to bring the military on his side as he grapples with a damaging corruption scandal.
Erdogan accuses supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an influential Muslim cleric who lives in the United States, of launching the anti-graft probe to try to topple his government.
Some of the top prosecutors spearheading the military trials were also involved in the corruption investigation, but have since been purged in a major shakeup by the government.
Source: Agence France Presse
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