Court accepts indictment on police helping coup attempt

A court in Istanbul accepted the indictment on 29 police officers suspected of cooperating with coup plotters during the foiled putsch attempt on July 15. Police officers face lifetime imprisonment for helping pro-coup soldiers and efforts to break public resistance to the coup attempted by a small junta loyal to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).

Defendants disobeyed orders to stop the coup plotters and some even cheered it, the indictment says. Mehmet Kurt, who headed an aerial division of the Istanbul police, and two other officers were tasked with transporting an elite police squad for the protection of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and taking them and Erdoğan to his presidential residence in Istanbul on the night of the coup attempt. The trio opposed their superiors, claiming coup plotters would "hang them" if they transported the squad. Police chief Şahin U., who commanded a police station in the Gazi district of Istanbul, ordered his subordinates to surrender to coup troops and never fire at them, according to the indictment.

A search of the cellphone of Muhammet I., a police officer linked to FETÖ, found a message reading, "We've got news from the United States, there will be a coup against Erdoğan." "United States" refers to the residence of Fethullah Gülen, the leader of the terror group.

İshak E., another police officer, wrote in a WhatsApp group of fellow FETÖ members that everyone should "prepare military fatigues." "We will be soldiers tomorrow," he wrote one day before the coup attempt.

Another defendant is accused of concealing orders by a police chief not to surrender to pro-coup troops and ordering his subordinates to obey the orders of troops linked to FETÖ.