By Diyar Guldogan
ISTANBUL
An Istanbul criminal court began hearing Monday the retrial of suspects in the "Sledgehammer" case in which senior former commanders are expected to testify on charges of plotting for a military takeover.
There are 236 defendants in the case that includes several former high ranking officers. The first hearing Monday sees 202 defendants, including retired generals Cetin Dogan, Halil Ibrahim Firtina, retired admiral Ozden Ornek, Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party lawmaker Engin Alan, appear in the court.
Turkey’s former chief of General Staff, Hilmi Ozkok, and former Land Forces commander, Aytac Yalman, are also summoned as as witness.
In an earlier verdict, the high court had sentenced the defendants to between six and 20 years imprisonment in September 2012 for allegedly being involved in the coup plot.
Later, however, Turkey’s Constitutional Court had unanimously overruled the verdict on June 18, 2014 on the grounds that the rights of the defendants were violated, especially through the "digital data" collection and wiretapping that was carried out against them.
The "Sledgehammer" (or the "Balyoz" in Turkish) is the name of the plot allegedly cooked up by a junta in the Turkish Armed Forces.
The plan is said to date back to 2003, one year after the ruling Justice and Development Party came to power. It allegedly aimed at undermining the ruling government to lay the groundwork for a military takeover.
According to the alleged plan, the military was to systematically foment chaos in society through violence, including bombing of mosques in Istanbul and downing of a Turkish war plane over the Aegean.
www.aa.com.tr/en
