A Turkish court has sentenced three former generals to life in prison,
in a trial of hundreds of military officers accused of plotting to
overthrow the Islamic-rooted government, the first ruling from several
cases targeting the army, RIA Novosti reports.
In the first sentences to be handed down in the two-year-long trial of 364 officers accused
of plotting to overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government,
three former generals were initially given life imprisonment.
However, the court said the three generals, Çetin Dogan, a former first army
commander, Ibrahim Firtina, a former air force commander and Ozden
Ornek, a former naval force commander admiral, would only serve
20-year prison sentences because they were unsuccessful in their bid
to topple the government.
The case has finished 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.
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.
