ISTANBUL
Istanbul's Anadolu prosecution office has appealed to the court to overturn the acquittal of seven suspects in a case over an alleged military coup attempt, Turkish judicial sources told Anadolu Agency Tuesday.
An earlier court decision had acquitted the seven suspects on May 31 in what has been publicly known as the “Sledgehammer” case.
According to the Turkish judicial sources, a deputy chief public prosecutor appealed to a high criminal court in Istanbul Tuesday for the reversal of the decision to acquit seven defendants, including retired military generals Cetin Dogan, Ihsan Balabanli, Behzat Balta, Mehmet Kaya Varol, Metin Yavuz Yalcın, Erdal Akyazan and Emin Kucukkilic.
Aydin claimed that the acquittal decision had violated Turkish law and was illegal.
The "Sledgehammer" or "Balyoz" case refers to an alleged plot designed by a junta in the Turkish Armed Forces that aimed to overthrow the government. The plan is said to date back to 2003, a year after the Justice and Development (AK) Party came to power.
The high criminal court in May had acquitted 236 defendants in the country’s long-running case after overturning the convictions.
The Turkish Supreme Court had sentenced the defendants to six to 20 years imprisonment in September 2012. However, Turkey’s Constitutional Court unanimously overruled that verdict in June 2014 on the grounds that the rights of the defendants had been violated.
