Ankara (AA) - The bill of indictment for the case related to February 28 military memorandum was approved on Thursday.
Ankara 13th High Criminal Court, to which the indictment was submitted, did not return it for review in the 15 day evaluation period stipulated by Turkish Penal Code, which meant the bill was automatically approved.
It calls for aggravated life sentence for 103 suspects on charges of "participating in forcibly toppling the government of Turkish Republic."
February 28 military memorandum was a host of decisions issued by Turkish military in 1997 in response to what it saw as rising Islamist ideology.
Then Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan was forced to sign the decisions into law, which included the enforcement of headscarf ban, a cause of long-standing controversy, as well as shutting down of Koran schools and measures to control media.
Soon after the memorandum episode, Erbakan resigned his post and the government collapsed. The event has come to be called a "postmodern coup", as it ended a government without causing dissolution of the parliament or suspension of the constitution.
