10 suspects sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment over ‘Dec 25 plot’

ISTANBUL

An Istanbul court has sentenced 10 former police offers to aggravated life imprisonment on accusations they attempted to topple the Turkish government in December 2013.

The suspects in the case took part in what the Turkish government calls an infamous probe in 2013, which according to Ankara was masterminded by the U.S.-based Fethullah Gülen, the head of FETÖ.

The probe was focused on alleged wiretapping of phone conversations of senior government officials, which led to accusations on four former ministers and other state officials. All four ministers have been cleared judicially of any wrongdoing. 

Those sentenced were former police officers Yakub Saygılı, Kazım Aksoy, Yasin Topçu, Mahir Çakallı, Arif İbiş, Mustafa Demirhan, Mehmet Habib Kunt, İbrahim Şener, Mehmet Fatih Yiğit and Mehmet Akif Üner.

The court decided to distinguish the files of fugitive defendants Hüseyin Korkmaz — one of the witnesses in former Halkbank executive Hakan Atilla’s court case in the U.S. — and former police officers Hamza Tosun, Sinan Dursun, Engin Filiz and Sinan Sağyalavaç.