By Jaime Ortega.
An Istanbul court verdict announced today the controversial ‘Ergenekon case’, who charged nearly three hundred people, including a former army chief, professors and journalists for planning a coup to overthrow the moderate Islamist government.
The case began in June 2007, with a police record in a house close to a suburb of Istanbul, where they found 27 hand grenades, and from that discovery the alleged plot against the government began to grow with further research.
In the “macro trial” the most important in the last decades, which began in October 2008, there are 278 people indicted, 66 are in custody and for which the prosecution requested a life sentence for coup, including many high-ranking retired military and a former chief of staff, like General Ilker Basbug.
In the 2,500 pages of court indictment they were alleged coup plans to try to overthrow the government of the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Former Chief of Staff Basbug, who worked with Erdogan during his tenure in the Army (2008-2010), is defined as the “leader of a terrorist organization”.
Prosecutors accuse the alleged plot to plan assassinations and bombings against govermment civilians to cause unrest and pave the way for a military coup.
Protests and demonstrations
A reading of the verdict, for which there is no set time, will proceed in the high-security Turkish prison in Silivri, about 70 kilometers west of Istanbul.
For security reasons, the verdict can only follow the deputies, lawyers, defendants and members of the press, which has sparked protests from bar associations and the opposition party, as it goes against the principle of public court hearings.
During the past weekend, police arrested 20 people in multiple zones in Istanbul against minor parties and NGOs that had organized demonstrations against the ruling, but the security forces have denied that their operation was linked to the reading of the verdict.
The secular opposition and some activist groups defending pro-rights believe the trial is politicized and is being used to court to purge the armed forces of those who disagree with the government.
The arrests of senior retired generals and active officers were unthinkable a few years ago in Turkey, where the army had enjoyed an untouchable status as a bastion of secularism in the country.
