Top appeals court overturns convictions in Ergenekon coup plot case

Turkey's top appeals court overturned convictions in the Ergenekon coup plot case on April 21.

The appeals court overturned the convictions of a local court on the grounds they lacked concrete evidence of the existence of the Ergenekon terror organization, as well as illegal wiretappings, statements of secret witnesses, illegal wiretapping of National Intelligence Organization (M?T) members and unlawful searches.

The court also said that former Chief of Staff Gen. ?lker Ba?bu? should have been tried in the Supreme Council.

The Ergenekon coup plot trial, considered the most important legal battle in recent Turkish history, reached an end on Aug. 5, 2013, after Istanbul's 13th High Criminal Court handed down severe punishments. 

The verdict trial, which decided the fate of 275 suspects at the end of a five-year process, resulted in hundreds of years of imprisonment in total and several aggravated life sentences for a series of the country's high-ranking army members, journalists and academics.

Suspects faced a series of charges from a combined mass of different cases, but with the overall focus around their implication in the Ergenekon network, which was ultimately acknowledged by the court as a terrorist organization that had attempted to overthrow the government.
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