A former Turkish Air Force officer trainee serving an aggravated life sentence over his alleged role in a 2016 coup attempt has called for justice, saying he was unfairly convicted despite what he described as a lack of evidence that he participated in the coup attempt, the TR724 news website reported.
In a letter to Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a lawmaker from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and a human rights defender, Taner Doğan said the court disregarded security camera footage and testimony supporting his defense.
Doğan, who is incarcerated in Antalya High-Security Prison, was dismissed from the military by an emergency decree while in custody. An Ankara court later convicted him of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order and sentenced him to aggravated life imprisonment. He said the Constitutional Court rejected separate applications challenging his conviction and dismissal and that both cases are now pending before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
Turkey experienced a controversial military coup attempt on the night of July 15, 2016, which, according to many was a false flag operation aimed at entrenching the authoritarian rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by rooting out dissidents and eliminating powerful actors such as the military in his desire for absolute power.
The abortive putsch left 251 people dead and more than 2,000 wounded. The next morning the Turkish government launched a wide-ranging purge of military personnel, judges, police officers and other government officials. According to official figures, more than 26,000 members of the Turkish Armed Forces, including 150 of its 326 generals and admirals, were expelled from the military by emergency decree-laws and administrative decisions for alleged ties to “terrorist organizations.”
Doğan said he went to Akıncı Air Base, which Turkish authorities identified as the command center of the coup attempt, after being told he was needed for a counterterrorism operation. He said he remained in a recreation room at the base that night, unaware that a coup attempt was underway, and neither used a weapon nor boarded an aircraft.
According to Doğan, security camera footage confirmed that he remained in the recreation room and that no witness or co-defendant had testified that he took part in the coup attempt. He pointed to differing verdicts in other coup trials, saying officer trainees in similar circumstances were acquitted or received lesser sentences.
He also said he was subjected to physical and psychological ill-treatment in custody following the coup attempt.
Doğan graduated third in his class from the Air Force Academy in 2013 and received his diploma from then-prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
He also criticized the appointment of Selfet Giray, the presiding judge of the Ankara 4th High Criminal Court that convicted him, to the Supreme Court of Appeals a day after the court handed down its verdict in the Akıncı case, describing the appointment as a reward for the ruling.
Doğan was among 475 defendants tried in the Akıncı case, one of the largest trials stemming from the coup attempt. The court handed down life sentences to 337 defendants, including 13 officer trainees.
A total of 289 coup-related trials have been concluded, with 4,891 people convicted. Of those, 1,634 received aggravated life sentences, 1,366 were sentenced to life in prison and 1,891 received sentences of varying lengths. Courts acquitted 2,870 defendants, while finding that 964 others had committed acts constituting a crime but required no sentencing. The Supreme Court of Appeals upheld 224 of the concluded trials.
A parliamentary commission established to investigate the coup attempt completed its work, but its final report was never published and its whereabouts remain unknown. Then-chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar and then-intelligence chief Hakan Fidan did not testify before the commission or in related court proceedings.
