A Turkish court will hand down the verdict on Friday in the trial of hundreds of military officers accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government, the first ruling from several cases targeting the army.
The two-year-long case is wrapping up at the court in Silivri, near Istanbul, which heard on Thursday the final testimonies of the suspects in the so-called “Sledgehammer” trial, named after a 2003 military exercise.
Prosecutors have demanded up to 20 years in prison for the 365 military officers in the case, which concerns alleged army plans to bomb historic mosques in Istanbul and spark conflict with neighbouring Greece to facilitate a military coup.
The defendants argued that the alleged plot was a military exercise regularly held by the army, and questioned the authenticity of some documents presented as evidence.
The court announced that it would deliver the final verdict on Friday afternoon, the first ruling to come out of a series of trials into alleged coup plots by the once-mighty Turkish army.
The trial, which began in December 2010, stands out in Turkish politics because it directly attacks the secular army, which authored four coups in half a century.
At Thursday’s hearing, the judge listened to the defence of Cetin Dogan, former commander of the First Army and suspected of being the “mastermind” behind the 2003 plan to drive the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) from power.