SLEDGEHAMMER COUP PLAN INVESTIGATION

Five out of six active soldiers who were taken to court in the scope of the investigation into the Sledgehammer Coup Plan were arrested by the Istanbul 10^th High Criminal Court in Beşiktaş (Istanbul) on Saturday (20 August). Rear Admirals Şafak Yürekli and Osman Kayalar are among the arrested active military personnel.

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.

The six soldiers were taken to court in the context of an investigation that was a launched on the basis of documents allegedly found during the search of the Gölcük Fleet Command Intelligence Branch in December 2010. They were interrogated by Hüseyin Ayar, the Public Prosecutor who is running the Sledgehammer investigation, on Friday (19 August).

The soldiers, among them Yürekli, Kayalar and Naval Colonel Aşkın Öztürk as un-detained defendants of the Poyrazköy trial and a case on military espionage, were taken to the court on duty with the demand for their arrest.

The court decided for the arrest of Rear Admirals Yürekli and Kayalar and Naval Colonels Erhan Şensoy, Cem Okyay and Gürsel Çaypınar. (AS/VK)