TURKEY: Riot police fire teargas to disperse protesters as a court hands down judgements in the Ergenekon conspiracy case

Record ID: 861973

  • Title: TURKEY: Riot police fire teargas to disperse protesters as a court hands down judgements in the Ergenekon conspiracy case
  • Date: 5th August 2013
  • Summary: ISTANBUL, TURKEY (AUGUST 5, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS CHANTING: 'We are soldiers of Mustafa Kemal." (Ataturk - founder of modern Turkey) RIOT POLCE TRYING TO MOVE PROTESTERS AWAY VARIOUS OF RIOT POLICE CLEARING PROTESTERS AWAY FROM THE AREA WATER CANNONS ARRIVING VARIOUS OF CROWD LEAVING MORE OF PEOPLE LEAVING AS SMOKE RISING FROM A TEARGAS CANISTER ON THE GROUND WATER CANNON SPRAYING AS PROTESTERS LEAVING PROTESTERS LEAVE AS TEARGAS RISES FROM THE GROUND
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Turkey
  • City:
  • Country: Turkey
  • Topics: Crime,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA8KHAU4JT2N913E6KVP84T0SOE
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Riot police faced down protesters outside a Turkish court on Monday (August 5) ahead of a verdict in the trial of nearly 300 alleged coup plotters, a landmark case in the decade-long battle between Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and the secularist establishment.
    Security forces fired teargas in fields around the courthouse in the Silivri jail complex, west of Istanbul, at one point triggering a small brush fire, as defendants' supporters gathered to protest against the five-year trial that has exposed deep divisions in Turkish society.
    Prosecutors say 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 says 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. They say the judiciary has been subject to political influence in hearing the case.
    Erdogan has denied interfering in the legal process, stressing the judiciary's independence. But he has criticised the prosecutors handling the case and expressed disquiet at the length of time defendants have been held in custody.
    With main access roads shut and protesters' buses prevented from reaching the area, hundreds of the defendants' supporters attempted to cross fields to reach the court and prison complex, but police with riot shields blocked their advance.
    Later, the court began sentencing the defendants, handing prison sentences of up to 20 years to some and acquitting 21 others.
    Among the 275 defendants accused in the case are retired armed forces commander Ilker Basbug and other military officers, politicians, academics and journalists. They deny the charges.
    Verdicts on high-profile defendants like Basbug were yet to be announced.
    Last September, the court in Silivri sentenced more than 300 military officers to jail on charges of plotting to overthrow Erdogan a decade ago in "Sledgehammer".
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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