Turkey's military welcomes 'Sledgehammer' coup verdict

ANKARA

Turkish Armed Forces have welcomed a court decision to acquit hundreds of suspects in the "Sledgehammer" military coup plot case.

A criminal court in Istanbul had cancelled convictions of 236 accused in the high-profile case Tuesday.

Sledgehammer, or Balyoz in Turkish, is the name of an alleged plot cooked up by a junta in the Turkish Armed Forces to overthrow the government in 2003.

"The case… hurt members of Turkish Armed Forces deeply and revealed the variety of fake evidences given in the case, which has resulted in the acquittal, as we expected," the Turkish Armed Forces, also known as the TSK, said in an official statement on their website.

The statement added that the TSK expected a fair trial of those responsible for hurting the loved ones of the accused and the Turkish Armed Forces.

The Turkish Armed Forces also offered condolences to the family of slain public Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz who died Thursday at Istanbul's Florence Nightingale Hospital at the end of a bloody hostage crisis.

The Sledgehammer case is about an alleged plot to overthrow the elected Turkish government in 2003, just one year after the ruling Justice and Development Party came to power. It was allegedly aimed at undermining the sitting government to lay the groundwork for a military takeover.

In an earlier verdict, the Turkish Supreme Court had sentenced the defendants to between six and 20 years imprisonment in September 2012. However, Turkey’s Constitutional Court unanimously overruled that verdict in June 2014 on the grounds that the rights of the defendants had been violated, especially because of illegal digital data collection and wiretapping.

At least 236 defendants had testified in the case, which included several former high-ranking military officers. Retired generals Cetin Dogan, Halil Ibrahim Firtina, retired admiral Ozden Ornek, Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party lawmaker Engin Alan were made to appear in court to face the charges.