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| Turkey Sledgehammer trial: Key coup sentences upheld | Turkey Sledgehammer trial: Key coup sentences upheld |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A Turkish court has upheld the convictions of key military officers ruled to have plotted the overthrow of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. | A Turkish court has upheld the convictions of key military officers ruled to have plotted the overthrow of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. |
| A retired general accused of being the coup plot organiser, Cetin Dogan, had his 20-year prison sentence upheld. | |
| More than 300 people were jailed last year over the "Sledgehammer" plot against the Islamist-led government. | |
| The court also ruled that more than 100 defendants should be acquitted or face a retrial. | The court also ruled that more than 100 defendants should be acquitted or face a retrial. |
| Sledgehammer, and a separate alleged coup plot known as Ergenekon, are the most prominent cases that have been pursued by the Turkish authorities against military officials in recent years. | |
| At last year's trial near Istanbul, prosecutors said Operation Sledgehammer was a conspiracy created in 2003, whose aim was to trigger a coup against the elected government of Mr Erdogan. | |
| Military officers were accused of plotting to bomb mosques and trying to trigger a war with Greece. | |
| The prosecution argued that the officers aimed to provoke widespread civil unrest in order to justify a military intervention. | |
| The Supreme Court of Appeals in Ankara has now decided to uphold the convictions of 237 retired officers. | |
| The most prominent defendants - former army commander Cetin Dogan, former navy chief Ozden Ornek and former air force chief Ibrahim Firtina - had their 20-year sentences for plotting a coup upheld. | |
| Eighty-eight other defendants will have their cases assessed by lower courts, to see if they face a retrial. |