Trial of Turkish officers accused of coup plot begins (Roundup)

Dec 16, 2010, 17:28 GMT

Istanbul - The first hearing in a trial of nearly 200 Turkish military officers accused of involvement in a coup plot was held on Thursday, with some of the defendants asking to have the judge in the case replaced.

A total of 196 retired and active officers - including the former commanders of the Turkish navy and air force - are alleged to have planned a coup in 2003, in a plot codenamed 'Sledgehammer.'

The case highlights the tensions between Turkey's secular military and mildly Islamist government. The suspects each face 15 to 20 years in prison if convicted for 'attempting to topple the government by force.'

At Thursday's hearing, held at a court in the town of Silivri near Istanbul, some of the defendants complained that a new chief judge had been assigned to the case just two days before the trial began.

The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors justified the move by pointing to Ministry of Justice allegations that the previous chief judge had ties to defendants in another politically sensitive trial, as well as connections to a drug ring and prostitution activities.

But the timing of the reassignment drew criticism from the defendants' lawyers - one of whom noted that the case involves more than 100,000 pages of evidence, which the previous judge had been studying for four months.

The Sledgehammer plot is said to have included the bombing of two major mosques in Istanbul, an attack on a military museum by people disguised as Islamic fundamentalists, and the provocation of military tensions with neighbouring Greece.

It is alleged that these events would have thrown the country into chaos, allowing the military to declare a state of emergency and overthrow the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party.

The March 2003 meeting at which the plot was allegedly formed took place only a few months after the AK Party was first elected.

The lead author of the coup plan and the main suspect in the case is retired general Cetin Dogan. He said before the trial that the documents at the center of the case contain nothing illegal and were instead an amateur compilation of his statements over time.

'When it is time to make my defence in court, I will say that fundamentally this case has no legal grounds,' local media quoted Dogan as saying.

Details of the coup plan were first revealed in documents leaked to the liberal newspaper Taraf in January 2010. The detentions of the suspects after the plan came to light were the first in Turkish history of such high-ranking officers. All were later released until the trial.

Turkey's powerful military, which sees itself as the ultimate guardian of the country's secular political system, has staged three military coups since 1960 and a 'soft coup' in 1997.

The military has denied the coup allegations, saying the scenarios were merely part of a hypothetical war game for training purposes.

The next hearing in the trial, which is expected to last several years, is scheduled for December 28.

The Sledgehammer case parallels another trial in Turkey also centered on an alleged coup plot, known as 'Ergenekon.' Nearly 300 people, including journalists, academics and politicians, have been arrested in connection with that trial, which has been ongoing since 2008.

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