135 military judges, prosecutors face terror charges for affiliation with FETÖ


The Chief Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against 135 judges and prosecutors of the military for their links to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).According to the indictment seen by Anadolu Agency, the suspects were part of a FETÖ network inside the Turkish military's courts system.The indictment also mentions a document titled "martial rule directives," which was allegedly released by coup plotters during the July 15, 2016, defeated coup in Turkey. The illegal directives had called for the appointment of 135 figures from the military's legal fraternity at "martial rule courts" following the coup bid.The accused entered the military's justice system between 2009 and 2014 after clearing exams under suspicious circumstances, it said.The suspects have been charged with attempts to violate Turkey's constitutional order, belonging to an armed terrorist organization, forging official documents and fraud.The indictment also said a lawsuit would be opened against a former Turkish Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) expert on charges of leaking questions of an exam for promotion in their careers to the suspects.The Ankara 16th heavy penal court has been urged to hand out life sentences of more than 45 years in prison to the 136 suspects.Out of the 136 suspects, 123 are in custody, three are on the run and 12 were released under judicial control.Previously, 31 other judges and prosecutors working at Turkish military courts were indicted based on the same "martial rule directives" document; the trial of these suspects began on Monday.