25 Released in Sledgehammer Case

Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals 9th Chamber overthrew the convictions for 63 defendants in the Sledgehammer (Balyoz) case with 361 defendants. While 25 were released pending a trial, 34 were acquitted.

The court approved the convictions of 237 defendants (who were mostly retired generals). Some remarkable names were as follows: Çetin Doğan, Halil İbrahim Fırtına, Bilgin Balanlı, Ergun Saygun, Özden Örnek, Engin Alan and Dursun Çiçek. 

63 were ordered for retrial due to lack of evidence. A lical court will reopen their cases.   

On June 17, Appeals Court prosecutors submitted an indictment, demanding the approval of 256 defendants. 

The document also requested the removal of convictions for 67 defendants, the approval of 2 defendants’ convictions after correction, the acquittal of 35 defendants and the removal of one defendant’s acquittal.  

Names of released defendants are as follows:  

Abdullah Dalay, Ali Aydın, Halil Helvacıoğlu, Abdurrahman Başbuğ, Ahmet Necdet Doluel, Ahmet Türkmen, Bülent Akalın, Cumhur Eryüksel, Doğan Uysal, Gökhan Çiloğlu, Güllü Salkaya, Hakan Ilıca, Hüseyin Polatsoy, İlker Yunus,İsmet Kışla, Şafak Duruer, Tevfik Özkılıç, Tuncay Küçük, Adem Ceylan, Cafer Uyar, Canatan Turgut, Kenan Yüce, Murat Dülek, Ömer Faruk Ağa Yarman and Tülay Delibaş 

Names of defendants who will be retried are as follows: 

Bora Serdar, Hasan Gülkaya, Levent Görgeç, Ahmet Tuncer, Ali İhsan Çuhadaroğlu, Ali Rıza Sözen, Aytekin Candemir, Bahtiyar Ersay, Barboros Kasar, Behcet Alper Güney, Burhan Göğce, Can Bolat, Cemal Candan, Cüneyt Sarıkaya, Doğan Fatih Küçük, Dursun Tolga Kaplama, Erdoğan Koçoğlu, Erhan Kuraner, Fatih Altun, Fatih Musa Çınar, Fuat Pakdil, Gökhan Gökay, Hakan Akkoç, Halil Yıldız, Hamdi Poyraz, Harun Özdemir, Hasan Basri Aslan, Hasan Hakan Dereli, Hasan Nurgören, İkrami Özturan, İlkay Nerat, Kemal Dinçer, Mehmet Alper Şengezer, Mehmet Kemal Gönüldaş, Muharrem Selçuk Ünal, Murat Ataç, Mustafa Hamzaoğulları, Mustafa Yuvanç, Namık Koç, Nedim Ulusan, Nihat Özkan, Orkun Gökalp, Refik Hakan Tufan, Sami Yüksel, Sırrı Yılmaz, Soydan Görgülü, Suha Civan, Timuçin Eraslan, Veli Murat Tulga, Yaşar Dilber, Yunus Nadi Erkut, Yüksel Gamsız, Zafer Karakaş, Ahmet Şentürk, Ahmet Topdağı, Gökhan Murat Üstündağ, Kasım Erdem, Levent Ergün, Mümtaz Can, Nurettin Işık, Recai Elmaz, Suat Dönmez and Turgay Bülent Göktürk

What happened?

Turkey’s Sledgehammer case opened in June 2010 with defendants facing charges related to “ousting the government in March 2003”. 

The case closed on September 21, 2012, with the conviction of several retired generals to life sentence, a verdict that was later on commuted to 20 years of prison as the attempt failed. The following retired generals received commuted life sentences: Çetin Doğan, Özden Örnek and Halil İbrahim Fırtına. 

The following notable defendants received 18 years of prison (with a total of 78 defendants): Engin Alan, Ergun Saygun, Bilgin Balan, Nejat Bek, Şükrü Sarıışık, Cemal Temizöz, Süha Tanyeri and Deniz Cora.

The following notable defendants received 16 years of prison (with a total of 216 defendants): Dursun Çiçek, Ahmet Zeki Üçok, Ali Türkşen, Erdal Akyazan and Ömer Faruk Ağa Yarman. (EKN/BM)

* Photo credit: Evrim Aydın / AA

* Click here to read the original article in Turkish.