Coup trial proceeds without suspects
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News
The Ankara court trying the two surviving leaders of the 1980 coup sent another request to the Forensic Medicine Institute yesterday to establish whether the ailing defendants are fit to attend the hearings in the courtrooms.The fourth hearing in the case, held again in the absence of the pair, former Chief of the General Staff Kenan Evren and former air force commander Tahsin Şahinkaya, was consumed mostly by procedural matters. Based on the report of the Forensic Medicine Institute, the court will decide whether the two defendants, who are both in hospital, should be brought to the courtroom.
The prosecutor asked the court to question government officials about the events that paved the way for the coup, such as the bloody May Day of 1977 in Istanbul and the massacres of Alevis in Çorum. Chief judge Süleyman İnce announced that the court had received a report on the 1977 May Day, penned by the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and made available by the General Staff.
The court continued to receive demands for intervening party status as applicants and lawyers made short speeches explaining how they were victimized at the time. Speaking at the hearing, one of the intervening parties, 105-year-old Berfo Kırbayır, whose son disappeared after being taken into custody a day after the military took over on Sept. 12, 1980, reiterated her demand for Evren to be brought to the courtroom.“I, as the mother of the Cemil Kırbayır, came the courtroom to face Evren. If I am able to come here, Evren can come as well,” she said.
