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TURKISH EX-GENERAL BASBUG MISSES COUP TRIAL AS CASE MERGED
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 7, 2012 - 18:38 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Former Turkish armed forces commander General Ilker
Basbug failed to appear among defendants in a mass trial over suspected
coup conspiracies, witnesses said, in an apparent protest at the
merging of his case with other coup investigations, Reuters reported.
The court held the first hearing on Monday, May 7 combining a series of
trials into suspected members of an alleged arch-nationalist network
called Ergenekon.
Police say the Ergenekon network, uncovered in 2007, was trying to
destabilize, discredit and ultimately overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party government.
A total of 16 indictments have been prepared against the defendants
and they have now all been combined in a single case being heard at
a court in Silivri, west of Istanbul, where many suspects have been
held in an adjoining high security jail. The sprawling investigation
has landed 256 defendants in the dock, overwhelming the courtroom's
capacity to accommodate them all at the same time.
Some 61 defendants have been subject to lengthy pre-trial custody,
including General Basbug, whose arrest in January shocked Turks, who
had otherwise become used to the sight of pashas, as commanders from
the Ottoman era were known, being paraded before the courts over the
past few years.
Basbug, who was chief of staff from 2008 to 2010, described the
accusation he led a terrorist organization as "tragi-comic". The case
against him revolves around websites set up by the military to run
anti-government propaganda. His trial began last month amid drama,
as Basbug refused to recognize the authority of the court and at one
stage walked out.
Having had a supreme court trial denied him, and with his case bundled
together with other Ergenekon trials, Basbug bridled at sharing the
dock with underworld figures and the convicted killer of a senior
judge assassinated at the Council of State in 2006, a source close
to Basbug told reporters.
"I will not sit on the same seats as gangsters and murderers," Basbug
was reported as telling those close to him by media reports. The source
quoted him as saying his "reputation and honor have been damaged"
by being put in the same category as Alparslan Arslan, the Council
of State killer, and the bombers of a secularist newspaper.
PanARMENIAN.Net
May 7, 2012 - 18:38 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Former Turkish armed forces commander General Ilker
Basbug failed to appear among defendants in a mass trial over suspected
coup conspiracies, witnesses said, in an apparent protest at the
merging of his case with other coup investigations, Reuters reported.
The court held the first hearing on Monday, May 7 combining a series of
trials into suspected members of an alleged arch-nationalist network
called Ergenekon.
Police say the Ergenekon network, uncovered in 2007, was trying to
destabilize, discredit and ultimately overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip
Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party government.
A total of 16 indictments have been prepared against the defendants
and they have now all been combined in a single case being heard at
a court in Silivri, west of Istanbul, where many suspects have been
held in an adjoining high security jail. The sprawling investigation
has landed 256 defendants in the dock, overwhelming the courtroom's
capacity to accommodate them all at the same time.
Some 61 defendants have been subject to lengthy pre-trial custody,
including General Basbug, whose arrest in January shocked Turks, who
had otherwise become used to the sight of pashas, as commanders from
the Ottoman era were known, being paraded before the courts over the
past few years.
Basbug, who was chief of staff from 2008 to 2010, described the
accusation he led a terrorist organization as "tragi-comic". The case
against him revolves around websites set up by the military to run
anti-government propaganda. His trial began last month amid drama,
as Basbug refused to recognize the authority of the court and at one
stage walked out.
Having had a supreme court trial denied him, and with his case bundled
together with other Ergenekon trials, Basbug bridled at sharing the
dock with underworld figures and the convicted killer of a senior
judge assassinated at the Council of State in 2006, a source close
to Basbug told reporters.
"I will not sit on the same seats as gangsters and murderers," Basbug
was reported as telling those close to him by media reports. The source
quoted him as saying his "reputation and honor have been damaged"
by being put in the same category as Alparslan Arslan, the Council
of State killer, and the bombers of a secularist newspaper.