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Turkish trial against 86 alleged plotters opens chaotically
2008-10-20
SILIVRI, Turkey (AFP) - The trial of 86 people accused of plotting to overthrow Turkey's Islamist-rooted government began chaotically and was immediately adjourned on Monday. The judge ordered a pause to decide how to proceed after lawyers protested they could not work properly in the tiny courtroom, packed with supporters of the accused, spectators and an army of journalists. "I have been doing this job for 50 years and never saw such conditions," one of the lawyers said as others complained they did not have space even to use their laptop computers -- the charge sheet alone is about 2,455 pages long. Another attorney argued that the tiny courtroom in a prison complex in Silivri, a town outside Istanbul, was intended to "prevent us from ensuring properly the rights of the defense." The case against the so-called Ergenekon group has deepened the rift between supporters of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) and hardline secularists, who see the case as a government-backed campaign to bully opponents. The suspects -- among them prominent figures -- were to answer about 30 separate charges ranging from membership in a terrorist group and instigating an armed uprising against the government to arson and illegal possession of weapons. Among the 86 suspects -- 46 of whom are remanded in custody -- are retired army officers, leftist politicians, journalists, members of secularist associations, academics and underworld figures. They were charged as part of a probe into the discovery of hand grenades in Istanbul in June 2007, which is still continuing, with more suspects -- some of them in jail -- awaiting charges. Scores of activists from the left-wing Labour Party, whose leader Dogu Perincek is among the suspects, demonstrated outside the courtroom, waving Turkish flags and brandishing posters of Ataturk, Turkey's secularist founder. The secularist Cumhuriyet daily, whose 83-year-old chief columnist Ilhan Selcuk is also among the accused, said the suspects were indicted "without any evidence" and charged that "this is not a trial... but a political feud." Several pro-government newspapers, on the other hand, hailed the case with almost identical headlines: "The trial of the century." The prosecution argues the suspects instigated violence and planned assassinations to foment political turmoil in the country and topple the AKP. The group reportedly hoped the chaos would prompt a military coup. Turkey's staunchly secularist army has ousted four governments in as many decades and threatened Erdogan's government last year with stepping in to safeguard secularism. Hardcore secularists suspect the AKP of advancing a secret plan to introduce Islamic rule in Turkey, a charge the party vehemently denies. The indictment holds Ergenekon responsible for at least two attacks initially blamed on Islamists -- the 2006 bombing of the Cumhuriyet daily and an armed attack on a top court the same year in which a senior judge was killed. The group is also accused of planning to assassinate several prominent figures, among them Erdogan, former army chief Yasar Buyukanit, 2006 Nobel literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, and senior Kurdish politician Osman Baydemir. Some suspects are widely seen as embodiments of the "deep state" -- a term used to describe members of the security forces acting outside the law, often collaborating with organised crime, to protect what they consider Turkey's best interests. The indictment says Ergenekon has penetrated senior army ranks, without being institutionally linked to the military. The probe has been applauded by pro-government and liberal circles as an unprecedented step forward in the fight against rogue elements in the state. But others, especially hardcore secularists, have sharply criticised it as an AKP move of revenge against political opponents for a failed bid earlier this year to outlaw the party at the Constitutional Court.
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