Investigation launched on anti-coup demonstrations

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Probe has been opened on supporters and families of suspects being tried in an alleged coup case for staging protests outside the courthouse. Hürriyet photo

The Silivri Public Prosecutor has opened up an investigation into the protesters who tried to break the security forces’ blockade in front of the Silivri Court House that held the Ergenekon coup-plot case hearing on Dec 13.

The prosecutor charges the protesters with violating “the law on meetings and demonstrations” and “resisting the commissioned officers.” Silivri Public Prosecutor’s Office will analyze video records and determine the protesters who violated the above mentioned laws.

Thousands of people led by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Workers’ Party (İP), and the Turkish Youth Union (TGB) staged a large protest in support of the suspects in the controversial case.
The gendarmerie forces had built a barrier that was knocked over by the protesters and the gendarmerie forces used pepper spray to disperse the crowd in front of the 13th High Criminal Court in Istanbul’s Silivri district. Although the Silivri Court House hosts a number of disputed cases such as the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK) case and the Ergenekon coup-plot case, protests rarely occur there.

Meanwhile the court board has rejected acquittal pleas for 67 suspects in the case. The board also decided to file a criminal complaint against a number of defendants’ lawyers, on the grounds that they had hindered the judicial process during the hearing on Dec. 13.