JAKARTA - A Turkir court has handed down a life sentence against dozens of people accused in connection with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's failed 2016 coup attempt.
Turkish news agency Anadolu quoted sources in court Wednesday as reporting 32 people were sentenced to life imprisonment, including six who were sentenced to maximum life sentences, where they served sentences without the possibility of parole for at least 30 years.
The dozens of people convicted are part of a total of hundreds of defendants accused of being part of a network the Turkish Government calls the Gülenist Terror Group's (FETÖ) linked to Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric based in the United States. He is accused of masterminding the failed coup in 2016.
The series of trials stemmed from a coup attempt on July 21, 2016, when factions within the Turkish military used tanks, fighter jets and helicopters to overthrow Erdogan. Fighter jets bombed the parliament building and several other locations in the Turkish capital. Thousands of people, at the call of President Erdogan, took to the streets urging a halt to the coup.
A total of 497 defendants have gone on trial since 2017, accused of staging a coup and attempting to seize military headquarters in Ankara, occupying the headquarters of the government broadcaster TRT and forcing a television broadcaster to read a statement on behalf of the group that carried out the coup.
In all, the failed coup claimed the lives of some 251 dead and about 2,200 others injured. Those killed included 35 people who are said to have planned the coup.
Fethullah Gulen himself is a former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Erdogan who now lives in northeastern Pennsylvania, United States. He denied being behind the coup attempt. However, the Turkish Government designated gulen's network as a terrorist group.
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