06 June 2018•Update: 06 June 2018
By Omer Sut
IZMIR, Turkey
A court in Izmir overturned acquittals of five FETO convicts for their roles in a plot to assassinate Turkey’s president during night of the 2016 defeated coup, according to judicial sources on Wednesday.
The 2nd penal department of a regional court in western province of Izmir reheard the case of 42 FETO members who had been tried by a court in Mugla, southwestern Turkey on Oct. 4, 2017, on the charges of attempting to assassinate Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of the defeated July 15, 2016 coup.
The convicts include former Brig. Gen. Gokhan Sahin Sonmezates, former Maj. Sukru Seymen, and former Master Sgt. Zekeriya Kuzu -- the so-called "base imam" of Cigli’s 2nd Main Jet Base Command in Izmir.
The court had also sentenced Ali Yazici, Erdogan’s former military aide, to 18 years in prison.
The penal court in Izmir upheld the previous decision for 37 suspects and quashed the acquittals of five suspects including Haydar Murat Ozden, Ahmet Kocan, Cenk Bahadir Avci, Aydin Ozsicak and Murat Gosterit.
Ozden, Kocan, Avci, Ozsicak and Gosterit were each given two aggravated life sentences over attempting to assassinate the president.
The convicts also got 15 years each for attempted murder, 15 years for deprivation of liberty and five years for deliberate injuring.
The Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen, orchestrated the foiled coup attempt, which left at least 250 people martyred and around 2,200 others wounded.
During the night of the coup attempt, two police officers were martyred at the scene of Erdogan's hotel in the Mediterranean port town of Marmaris.
That night Erdogan told the nation on live television he had narrowly escaped with his life when the hotel was bombed 15 minutes after he left the premises.
The government also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
