Turkish military criticizes arrest of officers in coup trial

Apr 6, 2011, 14:50 GMT

Istanbul - The Turkish military issued a statement Wednesday criticizing the arrest of more than 100 active duty officers in a controversial coup plot case, a day after an Istanbul court rejected a second appeal for them to be tried without arrest.

'The Turkish Armed Forces has difficulty in understanding the continuing arrest of 163 active duty and retired personnel,' the statement, published on the General Staff's website, said.

In the largest trial of high-ranking military officers in Turkish history, a total of 196 military personnel are charged with conspiring to topple the government in 2003, in a plot codenamed 'Sledgehammer.'

In February, prosecutors in the case demanded the arrest of 163 of the defendants - of whom 106 are active duty officers - while the trial continues, using a clause in the penal code allowing detention when there is sufficient evidence of a crime.

The suspects, who include the former commanders of the Turkish navy and air force, each face 15 to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The Sledgehammer plot is said to have included bombings of historic mosques in Istanbul, an attack on a military museum and the provocation of military tensions with neighbouring Greece.

Prosecutors allege the plot would have thrown the country into chaos, allowing the military to step in and remove the mildly Islamist ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) from power.

The military has denied the allegations, saying the scenarios were part of a hypothetical war game that took place at a military training seminar.

'The Turkish Armed Forces, which has especially avoided any actions that could be seen as interfering with the ongoing judicial process, has explained through repeated statements, in no uncertain terms, what the seminars were, how they were carried out, what they involved and who participated under what orders,' Wednesday's statement said.

The Sledgehammer case has highlighted tensions between the AKP government and Turkey's powerful military, which sees itself as the guardian of the country's secular political system.

While government supporters see the trial as an opportunity to put the military in its place, some observers have called the case a show trial with little legal merit.

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