Turkey's ruling party accuses military of meddling in judicial matters

The leadership of the ruling Turkish Justice and Development Party has accused the command of the armed forces of interfering in the administration of justice in connection with the General Staff statement on the case of the preparation of the 2003 coup to overthrow the government of Tayyip Erdogan (the so-called "plan Sledgehammer"), RIA Novosti reports.

Turkey's armed forces issued a statement on Wednesday criticising, in unusually strong terms, the detention of 163 officers on trial for allegedly plotting a coup against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government.

"The Turkish Armed Forces is having difficulty in understanding the continued detention of the 163 serving and retired personnel," the military said in a statement, adding it had refrained from actions interfering in the judicial process.

Turkey holds a national election on June 12, and opinion polls show Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, or AK Party, is set to score a third consecutive victory. The military's comments are likely to revive tensions ahead of it.

The "Sledgehammer" case, based on a coup plot allegedly hatched at an army seminar in 2003, is one of several setting the secularist establishment against a ruling party which critics suspect of having a secret Islamist agenda.