A court in western Turkey acquitted 357 defendants, including military officers, in a case of military espionage that was allegedly a trial orchestrated by those linked to the shady Gülen Movement. The 5th Heavy Criminal Court in İzmir ruled for acquittal of all the defendants, who were earlier released pending trial after lengthy detentions. The court also ordered an investigation into those who conducted the probe that led to defendants being charged with military espionage. Gülenist judges and prosecutors are accused of fabricating evidence and targeting military prosecutors and judges, according to an earlier indictment on the case that led to the imprisonment of defendants accused of obtaining confidential military documents, allegedly for the purposes of supplying them to foreign intelligence services. They were accused of playing a role in the possibly erroneous designation of defendants who were detained in 2013. Last year, arrest warrants were issued for the leader of the Gülen Movement, the fugitive imam Fethullah Gülen, for fabricating evidence for the military espionage investigation in İzmir. Police have detained a large number of suspected Gülenists who were involved in masterminding the trial process by planting fake evidence implicating the defendants. The Gülen Movement, which evolved from a religious group into a politically motivated organization with clout within law enforcement, the judiciary and bureaucracy, is accused of attempts to imprison its critics with sham trials through judges and police loyal to the movement. High-ranking followers of the movement face charges of running a terrorist organization, which was behind two coup attempts against the government in 2013, again, through trials based on forged evidence against people close to the government. Media outlets have reported earlier that the military was the main detractor of the movement and opposed its attempts to expand its influence in Turkey and so was targeted by Gülenist prosecutors and judges in a series of trials that has seen imprisonment of hundreds of officers including top generals. Following a set of legal reforms and a purge of Gülenist infiltrators in the judiciary and police, officers accused in several trials on charges of planning coups were released. The judiciary now works to bring those to justice in a string of cases against plotters of sham trials. Gülen, who currently lives in Pennsylvania in the United States, is the prime suspect in the investigations into the sham trials and is accused of heading the Gülenist Terror Organization (FETÖ).