The evening of the coup attempt of July 15, 2016. (archives) - ADEM ALTAN / AFP

Turkish court on Friday sentenced a total of 121 people to life imprisonment after a trial in connection with the failed 2016 coup, which was followed by purges of unprecedented scale, media reports said. . Among the 121 convicted, 86 received life sentences "aggravated" after their trial, known in Turkey as "the trial of the General Command of the Gendarmerie," said the state agency Anadolu.

The condemned were found guilty of "attempting to overthrow the constitutional order". A total of 245 people were tried in this trial. The “aggravated” life prison sentence, which includes stricter conditions of detention, replaced the death penalty abolished in 2004 in the Turkish legal arsenal.

Large purges

After an interruption due to the coronavirus, the court hearings resumed in June in Turkey, in particular the main trial of the failed putsch focused on the events which took place on the evening of July 15, 2016 at the Akinci air base in Ankara , considered the headquarters of the putsch leaders. The coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan left nearly 250 people dead, not including the coup plotters, and thousands injured.

Ankara imputes this attempt to overthrow President Erdogan to his former ally, the preacher Fethullah Gülen, who has been living in the United States for twenty years. The applicant, from whom Ankara has repeatedly requested extradition, denies any role in the failed coup. The legal proceedings launched after this aborted coup are of unprecedented scale in Turkey. More than 55,000 people were arrested during the purges started after July 15.

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  • Coup in Turkey
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