The defence lawyers left the court room under protest at the 22^nd hearing of the "Sledgehammer" trial. 196 defendants, 162 of whom are detained, stand trial in the scope of this case, among them high rank officials like the former Air Force Commander Halil İbrahim Fırtına, the former Naval Forces Commander Özden Örnek and the former First Army Commander Çetin Doğan.

The "Sledgehammer" coup plan was plotted by a group of people within the armed forces in 2002/03. It was aimed at creating disorder in the country by bombings of mosques, crashing a Turkish jet plane and warplanes flying over the parliament, which should eventually lead to martial law and a coup.

Fırtına, Örnek and Doğan were among the 155 detained defendants who attended the Monday hearing (25 April). 22 of the un-detained defendants appeared as well before the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court located on the premises of the Silivri Prison west of Istanbul.

Tension in the beginning of the hearing

As reported by the Turkish news channel CNN Türk, Doğan's lawyer Celal Ülgen requested to read out the names of the absent defendants in the beginning of the hearing instead of counting the ones present at court one by one. Court President Ali Alçık replied that it was necessary to determine who was present at the hearing and had the entire list of names put down in the minutes.

When the defendants did not participate in the counting, lawyer İlkay Sezer put forward that this method had not been followed in the previous hearings either.

Criminal complaint for scene of "forged CD"

In her speech of defence, lawyer Şule Nazlıoğlu Erol said that Doğan's lawyer Hüseyin Ersöz had claimed that the case against his client was based on a forged CD. She also reminded the fact that the court filed a correspondent complaint about Ersöz. Erol stated that Ersöz's defence speech remained within the scope of his duty.

Erol also mentioned Ersöz's announcement that the CD had been discovered in a made-up scene (initiated by himself) as part of his defence speech. Erol said that the court had to create a free environment in order to be able to present a founded defence. She announced that the defence lawyers were not going to attend the rest of the Monday hearing as a concrete indicator of the warnings regarding the realization of a fair trial.

Thereupon, the defence lawyers left the court room. The hearing was continued with the defence of defendant Örnek.

At the previous hearing on 18 March, lawyer Ersöz had placed a CD underneath the telephone on the podium during an intermission hinting to his claim that the trial against his client Doğan was based on a fake CD. Ersöz said that the defence was going to be continued with a made-up scene, "There is a CD under the phone on the podium. I request to insert this CD into a computer", he said.

The court filed a complaint against Ersöz at the Silivri Public Chief Prosecution. The CD allegedly contained the names of the judges on the court board and a humiliation of the prosecutor by using his last name (since in Turkish it is common to address the people with their first name followed by their title). The court furthermore claimed that Ersöz had exceeded the limits of defence and that he had identified the judges as a target.

Lack of Jurisdiction for "Coup Diaries" procedures

At the same time, the Ankara Public Chief Prosecution decided for "lack of jurisdiction" related to the investigation into the "Coup Diaries" that involved Örnek, Fırtına and former Land Forces Commander Aytaç Yalman.

According to Radikal newspaper, the prosecution forwarded the file to the Istanbul Public Chief Prosecution because of an "actual connection" between the investigations related to the "Ergenekon" and "Sledgehammer" proceedings. (EÇ/BB/VK)