Failed Erdogan assassins to stay in jail

Dozens of suspects accused of trying to assassinate the Turkish president during last year’s botched coup attempt will remain in jail pending their trial and have been denied bail, a court in southwestern Turkey ruled yesterday.

44 members of the military squad involved in the plot – who are believed to have been ordered to capture or kill President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – were previously remanded in custody to face trial.

The Second Heavy Penal Court in Mugla also decided that Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also Erdogan’s son-in-law, can join the trial as a plaintiff.

Last year, on 15 July, in the midst of the coup attempt, Erdogan told the nation on live television that he had narrowly escaped an attempt on his life when the hotel in Marmaris where he had been staying was bombed only 15 minutes after he left.

Turkey survived a deadly coup attempt on 15 July by rogue elements within the military that killed 249 people and injured nearly 2,200 others.

Responding to a rallying cry by Erdogan, Turkish citizens valiantly took to the streets that night and became the biggest factor in ensuring the failure of the attempted overthrow of the democratically elected government.

Turkey’s government has repeatedly said the coup attempt was organized by US-based preacher Fetullah Gulen and what the Turkish government now terms as the “Fetullah Terrorist Organisation”, or FETO.

Gulen is accused of a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary, forming what is commonly known as the parallel state.