Turkey's top judicial board decides to examine Ergenekon coup plot case

ISTANBUL

Fatih Hilmioğlu, who is serving his 23-year sentence, is diagnosed with cancer. His brother urges the PM to let Hilmioğlu be treated outside of jail. DHA Photo

Turkey’s Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) has decided to launch an examination on an Istanbul court that ruled on the controversial coup plot case, Ergenekon.

The HSYK will examine the Ergenekon trial, considered the most important legal battle in recent Turkish history, which resulted in several life sentences for allegedly trying to topple the government.

The decision came after an application from the lawyer of the former Chief of General Staff İlker Başbuğ, who is the highest-profile suspect in the case, which is currently pending appeal.

Recently, there is a debate of retrying the coup plot cases Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer) going on in the Turkish political agenda, following one of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s advisers saying there was a “parallel state” within the state and it plotted a “conspiracy on the Turkish army.”

On Jan. 10, Erdoğan told reporters there are “people who are unfairly in jail” in the Ergenekon case.

Meanwhile, Hayati Hilmioğlu says his brother, Fatih Hilmioğlu, was diagnosed with stage three liver cancer and called on the Prime Minister to let his brother be treated outside of prison. Hilmioğlu is serving his 23-year sentence for alleged involvement in the Ergenekon case.

“Either the Prime Minister will do something, or my brother is dying,” Hayati Hilmioğlu told daily Hürriyet.