Turkish court announces verdicts in coup plot trial

An Istanbul court passed judgments on nearly 300 suspects accused of plotting to topple the ruling government in a battleground case as a part of the decade-long conflict between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Turkey's secularist establishment.

The court sentenced former chief of general staff Gen. Ilker Basbug with two aggravated life imprisonment.

Journalist Tuncay Ozkan and retired general Veli Kucuk were sentenced to aggravated life sentences while Workers' Party leader Dogu Perincek received 117 years in prison.

Retired colonel Arif Dogan was also sentenced to 47 years. Both Kucuk and Dogan were accused of founding and leading a terrorist organization and trying to overthrow the government.

Retired general Ismail Hakki Pekin was sentenced to seven years, and journalist Adnan Bulut were sentenced to six years, according to verdict.

They are accused of staging a military coup to topple the government, illegally possessing weapons for an armed uprising under the alleged underground terrorist organization named Ergenekon. The court acquitted 21 other suspects in the case as the announcement of the verdict continues at the Silivri Courthouse.

The case, which began in 2007 with the discovery of 27 hand grenades in a house in Istanbul, has witnessed some of the country 's most prominent figures detained and arrested, including former chief of general staff Gen. Ilker Basbug, and the deputy of Republican People's Party (CHP) Mehmet Haberal.

275 suspects, 66 of them under arrest, were awaiting for rulings on Monday morning, and other 33 indictments have been submitted in the course of the Ergenekon trial, which were attended by over 130 witnesses to testify at the hearings.

Security forces have set up barricades around the Courthouse in the Silivri jail complex, about 80 km west of Istanbul, to tighten security procedures after the defendants' supporters vowed to hold demonstrations against the five-year trial that has resulted in deep divisions in the Turkish society.

Prosecutors said that an alleged network of secular arch- nationalists, code-named Ergenekon, pursued extra-judicial killings and bombings in order to trigger a military coup, an example of the anti-democratic forces which Erdogan said his Islamist-rooted AK Party has fought to stamp out.

Critics, including the main opposition party, have said the charges are trumped up, aimed at stifling opposition and taming the secularist establishment which has long dominated Turkey. It said the judiciary has been subject to political influence in hearing the case.

Ahead of the verdict, state authorities banned protests at the court, and police on Saturday raided offices of a secularist association, political party and television channel, detaining 20 people for calling for demonstrations.

Police sealed off the main road to the courthouse with fencing topped with razor wire and concrete blocks and around 100 people chanted anti-government slogans.