A Turkish court on Friday sentenced 70 former air cadets to life imprisonment over their roles in the failed 2016 coup, Diken news website reported.
The Istanbul 24th Heavy Penal Court delivered its long-awaited verdict in the post-coup trial where 70 former cadets of Air Force Academy and two conscripts were charged with taking part in the coup attempt in 2016.
Fourteen detained defendants and a conscript were present in the final hearing, Sözcü daily said.
The court convicted 70 former cadets for violating the constitutional order and initially sentenced them to aggravated life imprisonment.
However, the court then reduced their sentences to life in prison after taking account of its adverse impacts on the defendants and the defendants’ behaviors in trials.
The Prosecution Office filed its indictment on November 23, 2019, in which it gave details as to the defendants’ alleged role in the coup attempt.
Besides their involvement in the coup attempt, the prosecution office also accused some of the defendants of being members of the Gulen movement.
Ankara accuses the Gulen group led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, of orchestrating the failed coup. Gulen and his base deny any involvement in the bid.
The Prosecution Office claimed that the defendants traveled from Yalova, where they were in a military camp to Istanbul on the night of the coup attempt to assist the putschists.
However, the defendants rejected the accusation and said they had been told that they would carry out a military exercise in Istanbul and had no knowledge of the coup attempt.
Mothers of arrested military school students staged peaceful sit-in protests in Ankara to draw attention to their sons’ alleged innocence. Police, however, waded into their protests and detained some of them, according to a report by Euronews.
On the night of the coup attempt, about 350 military school students who were training in Yalova at that time were transported to five different places in Istanbul, Euronews said.
Police detained 249 of them on July 16, 2016and arrested them on coup charges four days later. Several prosecution offices in Istanbul charged the students with participation in the coup attempt and violation of the constitutional order, and 187 former cadets have been given life sentences so far.
Mothers demand freedom for cadets given life in prison over Turkey coup charges
The post Turkish court sentences air cadets to life in prison on coup charges appeared first on IPA NEWS.
from IPA NEWS https://ipa.news/2020/01/04/turkish-court-sentences-air-cadets-to-life-in-prison-on-coup-charges/
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