Prosecutor objects to coup-plot verdict, seeks further imprisonments

ISTANBUL

Families of jailed suspects react after hearing the court's ruling in Istanbul on Sept 21. AA photo

The prosecutor of the "Balyoz" (Sledgehammer) coup plot case, Hüseyin Kaplan, filed today an objection to the court's Sept. 21 decision on the grounds that not enough suspects were convicted.
 
Kaplan objected to the acquittal of 36 suspects in the case, requesting that the judges imprison them as well to prison terms ranging between 15 and 20 years.
 
A court in Istanbul sentenced 324 retired and active-duty soldiers to prison terms ranging between 13 and 20 years in the Balyoz case, which heard allegations that soldiers planned to overthrow the government through a variety of measures, including the bombing of two prominent Istanbul mosques, an attack on a museum by perpetrators disguised as Islamists and the raising of tensions with Greece by shooting down a Turkish jet in an incident that was to be blamed on the Aegean neighbor.
 
The convicted soldiers include retired Air Force Cmdr. Gen. İbrahim Fırtına, retired First Army Cmdr. Gen. Çetin Doğan and retired Navy Cmdr. Adm. Özden Örnek, who were each sentenced to 20 years in prison for drawing up the reported coup plans after taking part in an army seminar in 2003.