7 ex-army officers get life-plus sentences in Istanbul

By Murat Paksoy, Yunus Ege and Huseyin Kulaoglu

ISTANBUL

Seven former Turkish army officers got aggravated life sentences late Tuesday for taking over an Istanbul government building and a mosque during last year’s defeated coup.

They were convicted by Istanbul’s 23rd Heavy Penal Court of trying to overthrow Turkey’s constitutional order through violence as part of the coup bid of the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).

Former Maj. Ozgur Araz; former Capts. Yavuz Selim Dayi, Muhammed Hayrettin Sahin, and Levent Gungor; former Lt. Ayhan Bagdat; and former Sgts. Mehmet Turkmen Seyhan and Fatih Alkan had occupied a logistics center of the Greater Istanbul Municipality along with a mosque.

All of the ex-officers got an additional 200 years in prison for depriving people of their liberty through violence.

The Fetullah Terrorist Organization and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup 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.