Turkish Ex-Army Chief on Trial for Alleged Coup Plots
Turkey's former army chief Ilker Basbug went on trial Monday on charges of leading a terrorist group accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government, local media said.
Basbug, who was chief of staff from 2008 to 2010, has been in custody since January and risks life in prison if convicted in a case that has inflamed tensions between the government and the powerful military.
He is the most senior officer to be implicated in a massive probe into the so-called Ergenekon network, accused of plotting to topple Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Basbug, 68, branded the charges against him as "tragi-comic" when he was arrested in January.
At the start of the hearing in a court in Silivri, outside Istanbul, Basbug's lawyer called for his client to be tried by the supreme court but the demand was rejected, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Source: Agence France Presse
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