Former soldiers were among 31 people sentenced to life in prison by an Ankara court on Tuesday in a case related to the July 2016 failed military coup, bringing the total number of life sentences in related cases to more than 100 in a week.
The defendants including Sadık Köroğlu, former Gen. of Gendarmerie Schools Command, were convicted on Tuesday over incidents of the July 2016 defeated coup, plotted by Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).
The Heavy Penalty Court No: 20 in capital Ankara sentenced 31 FETO suspects to aggravated life sentences over the coup plot at the Beytepe Gendarmerie Schools Command on July 15, 2016.
The convicts also include former Col. Özkan Doğanay, former Lt. Col. Hacı Akyel, former Lt. Col. Efkan Güler, former Maj. Tarık Görener and former Maj. Mehmet Bakan.
Last week, an Istanbul court sentenced 72 former soldiers to life in prison over the killings of 34 people on one of three bridges over the Bosphorus Strait during the coup.
A state of emergency that has been in place for two years after the failed takeover is expected to end on July 18.
FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.
Ankara also 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.
