An Istanbul court on Friday handed down aggravated life sentences to six suspects over links to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO), the group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, a judicial source said.
Nazli Ilıcak, Ahmet Altan, Mehmet Altan, Fevzi Yazıcı, Yakup Şimşek and Sükrü Tuğrul Özşengül were convicted for attempting to overthrow the constitutional order, said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media.
* Three prominent figures who are accused of serving as the media arm of FETÖ, Ahmet Altan (L), Mehmet Altan (M) and Nazlı Ilıcak (R).
Ilıcak and the Altan brothers, who were fierce advocates for the terrorist group, are accused of calling for the coup to take place and of intimate ties with the putschists and senior figures of the terrorist group. Two days before the coup attempt, the three suspects were discussing a potential coup on a TV show. Ilıcak later defended the program by saying that the TV show did not imply any coup.
Ilıcak, a staple of Turkish media for decades, had been a staunch defender of FETÖ, claiming it was not a terrorist organization. She defended the group all the way up until the coup attempt. In her first testimony after her arrest, Ilıcak said she had realized FETÖ was a terrorist group.
Ahmet Altan is a journalist who worked for Hürriyet and Milliyet before founding Taraf, a newspaper that had been a mouthpiece for FETÖ before it was closed down last year. The Altan brothers were detained in September 2016.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 that martyred 250 people and injured nearly 2,200 others.
Ankara accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.
In the wake of the defeated coup, tens of thousands of FETO suspects have been arrested, including many in the armed forces, police, judicial system, education, and business sectors.
