Turkey's Ergenekon plot case overturned by top court of appeals

Turkey's top court of appeals has overturned convictions in the Ergenekon coup plot trial, considered one of the most significant legal battles in recent Turkish history which lasted nearly a decade, ruling that the "Ergenekon Terror Organization," the target of the allegations, did not exist at all.
The Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that the local court's recognition of the "Ergenekon Terror Organization" was not felicitous because it was not known when and by whom the "Ergenekon Terror Organization" was established. "Its crimes and hierarchic structure was not exposed" and "its leader was not evident," a senior judge said, while reading out the summary of the 231-page reasoned judgment at the final hearing of the appeal case on April 21.

The appeals court said the local court had failed to show "legal and actual links" between an armed attack at the Council of State and the Ergenekon case.       

In May 2006, an assailant named Alparslan Arslan carried out an armed attack at the Council of State's Second Office, killing a judge and wounding four others.       

The court also ruled that the testimonies of the suspects in the case were given under unhealthy conditions and unjust time limits.

Some of the verdicts in the case were not even linked to the allegations in the indictment, while some intelligence members testified in the case as witnesses without the permission of the National Intelligence Agency (M?T), it said, adding that some documents which included state secrets were inspected by security forces during the inspections.

Evidence was produced over illegal wiretappings, it added.

Turkey's former military chief, ?lker Ba?bu?, had been accused of being part of this alleged "deep state" organization,...