13 December 2017•Update: 14 December 2017
By Sibel Ugurlu
ANKARA
A total of 64 people were convicted and sentenced to jail on Wednesday for being members of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind last year’s defeated coup, according to a security source.
An Istanbul court on Wednesday handed life sentences to 18 FETO members for attempting to occupy the riot police’s branch office in Istanbul’s Bayrampasa district during last year’s defeated coup attempt.
The decision came from Istanbul’s 24th Criminal Court in the Silivri district of the city, where three of the suspects were handed aggravated life sentences.
The suspects, who had been jailed pending trial, were accused of attempting to "breach the constitution", while two were accused of being responsible for a person’s death and injuring 15 other people.
Among the other 46 were security staff and an engineer.
The 4th High Criminal Court in the northwestern Sakarya province handed down jail terms to 29 former police officers ranging from four to six years.
In the southern Adana province, 11 former police officers were convicted and given jail terms ranging from one to nine years.
In the Black Sea Kastamonu province, a high court sentenced a convicted FETO member to six years and three months in jail and another to two years and six months in prison.
In another Black Sea province, Samsun, a former engineer received a sentence of six years and three months from the 3rd High Criminal Court.
In the northeastern Ardahan province, two former police officers were each sentenced to six and nine years in prison.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup attempt of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
