Turkey Coup Generals Testify via Videoconference
The two surviving authors of a bloody 1980 coup in Turkey, both ailing and in hospital, appeared by video link for the first time before an Ankara court on Tuesday to hear the charges against them in the landmark trial.
Kenan Evren, 94, who became president after the military takeover, and Tahsin Sahinkaya, 86, the former air force commander, face charges of crimes against the state.
Their putsch was the bloodiest in Turkey's post-war history, with 50 people executed while dozens died from torture. Some 600,000 were arrested and many others went missing.
The trial, the first of coup leaders in Turkey, began in April and is expected to help the nation confront its history of military oppression.
Evren and Sahinkaya, being treated at military hospitals in Ankara and Istanbul respectively, have been unable to attend any of the trial's seven hearings because of their state of health.
They appeared on the court's video screens for Tuesday's seventh hearing attended by only a handful of spectators and journalists.
Outside the court, some 300 protesters called for the pair to be severely punished.
The defendants were seen with lawyers standing by their hospital beds in footage aired by Turkish television.
The retired generals did no more than confirm their identities before the reading of 80 pages of charges began, a process that lasted several hours.
The court then adjourned the hearing to Wednesday.
Modern-day Turkey's once-powerful military was the self-appointed guardian of the secular state, but its political influence has waned since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan came to power in 2002.
His Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has clipped the generals' wings through a series of trials, one of which resulted in more than 300 army officers being put behind bars for alleged coup plots.
Turkey's 1982 constitution, imposed by the then junta, contained an article granting legal immunity to the former generals.
The provision was repealed through a package of amendments initiated by the AKP and approved by referendum in 2010.
Source: Agence France Presse
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