General Ilker Basbug, the former Turkish army chief who was sentenced to life for his role in a plot to overthrow the government, has been freed from prison in Istanbul.
A local court ordered the release of Gen. Ilker Basbug, a day after Turkey’s constitutional court overturned his sentence citing a legal technicality.
Ilker Basbug, who was in charge of the Turkish military from 2008 to 2010, was sentenced to life in August 2013.
Dozens of people were charged over the alleged plot. Ilker Basbug was found guilty of leading a shadowy network of hard-line nationalists known as Ergenekon.
The group was said to have plotted to topple the current government of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
Ilker Basbug was found guilty of leading a shadowy network of hard-line nationalists known as Ergenekon
Turkey’s constitutional court ruled on Thursday that Ilker Basbug’s imprisonment had violated his rights.
The court trying him had failed to publish a detailed verdict on the case, it said.
Speaking outside the prison in Istanbul, where he had been held for over two years, Gen. Ilker Basbug said: “Those who acted with hatred and revenge kept us here for 26 months. They stole 26 months from my life.”
His lawyer, Ilkay Sezer, welcomed the release but said there were “many more people in jails who are suffering severe health problems and who have been victims of these courts”.
Hundreds of people were jailed in 2012 and 2013 in two high-profile cases, called Sledgehammer and Ergenekon.
In January, the high command of the armed forces and opposition both demanded a retrial for the officers.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan later said he favored a retrial, in what many saw as a political turnaround.
In February, the Turkish parliament abolished the specially appointed courts that tried the officers, increasing the possibility of retrials for those convicted.
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Turkey’s PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he favors the retrial of hundreds of military officers convicted of plotting to overthrow the government.
The move comes after Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s senior adviser suggested that the officers had been framed by the police and judiciary.
Hundreds of people were jailed in 2012 and 2013 in two high-profile cases, called Sledgehammer and Ergenekon.
Correspondents say the remarks represent a political turnaround.
“Our position on a retrial is a favorable one,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul on Sunday.
“First we must establish the legal grounding for fresh trials.”
It comes as political tensions run high over alleged corruption in the Turkish government.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the police and judiciary of orchestrating a probe which led to the resignation of his ministers.
The ruling AK Party is rooted in political Islam and has moved to curb the power of the Turkish military, which sees itself as guardian of the modern secular state founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he favors the retrial of hundreds of military officers convicted of plotting to overthrow the government
The prime minister now appears to have taken the side of the military he once opposed. In recent days, the army has filed a criminal complaint calling for retrials.
During the early years of his administration, Recep Tayyip Erdogan formed an unofficial alliance with prosecutors in an effort to remove the military from politics.
This effort culminated with two major trials relating to separate alleged plots – Sledgehammer and Ergenekon. They were seen as major challenges to Turkey’s secularist traditions.
But in December, some of the same prosecutors involved in those investigations ordered the arrest of a number of the prime minister’s own allies.
Three ministers resigned after their sons were arrested, along with dozens of others, over alleged wrongdoing in construction contracts and deals with Iran.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the investigation as a “dirty plot”.
The armed forces then suggested that this “plotting” also included the convictions of officers, and demanded a retrial.
The former armed forces chief, General Ilker Basbug, was among dozens of people given long jail terms. Lawyers, politicians and journalists were convicted, along with many military officers.
Analysts say the latest dispute over corruption is part of a power struggle between Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and an influential US-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen, who is said to have many followers within Turkey’s police and judiciary.
For decades, the armed forces were the ultimate arbiter in Turkish politics.
Between 1960 and 1997, the military forced out four civilian governments.
But over the last decade, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has changed the balance of power in Turkey.
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General Ilker Basbug, Turkey’s former armed forces chief, has been jailed for life for plotting to overthrow the government, after five years of trials involving officers, lawyers, writers and journalists.
Gen. Ilker Basbug was among dozens of people convicted of involvement in the so-called Ergenekon plot.
Critics of PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan have accused him of staging show trials to eliminate his enemies.
His supporters say the trials have pushed the military out of politics.
Verdicts are being read out one by one at a specially constructed courtroom in Istanbul.
Twenty-one people have been acquitted and some 40 convicted so far, including at least one journalist and a police chief.
Ilker Basbug, who led the military between 2008 and 2010, had rejected all the charges against him.
The plot allegedly aimed to topple the government led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP).
General Ilker Basbug, Turkey’s former armed forces chief, has been jailed for life for plotting to overthrow the government
The defendants faced charges ranging from membership of “Ergenekon”, an alleged underground terrorist network, to illegally possessing weapons and instigating an armed uprising against the AKP.
Prosecutors had demanded life imprisonment for Gen. Ilker Basbug and 63 others, including nine other generals.
The court is sitting at the high-security Silivri prison complex, west of Istanbul, where the general is being held.
Hundreds of riot police fired tear gas to disperse some 1,000 protesters who were marching outside the courthouse, reports say.
The case is being seen as a key test in PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s showdown with secularist and military opponents.
Since Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power in 2002, hundreds of military officers – serving or retired – have been arrested.
Critics say there is little evidence for the charges and accuse the government of trying to silence its secularist opponents.
Critics have complained that the Ergenekon investigation has focused on opponents of the AKP.
The government denies any such motive.
Turkey’s military has long seen itself as the guarantor of the country’s secular constitution.
It staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and has a history of tension with the AKP.
The AKP is considered a successor to the Welfare Party, an Islamist party that led a 1996-97 government forced to resign by an army-led campaign.
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