47 on trial for plot to kill Erdogan

MUGLA, Turkey: Almost 50 suspects went on trial on Monday accused of plotting to assassinate Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at a luxury Aegean hotel on the night of the botched July 15 coup.

Forty-four suspects, mainly soldiers, are under arrest, while three others still on the run are being tried in absentia at the court in the southern city of Mugla.

The suspects, several smartly dressed in suits and ties, were led into the court by security forces in front of television cameras, AFP correspondents said.

Onlookers heckled the accused as they stepped out of the buses that took them from prison, shouting "we want the death penalty!" and "Allahu Akbar" ("God is Greatest").

The trial was taking place under the highest security with snipers posted on rooftops and helicopters circling overhead.

Erdogan, who was holidaying at a hotel in the upmarket Aegean resort of Marmaris with his family on the night of the coup, has said the plot left him 15 minutes from death.

Prosecutors have sought multiple life sentences for each of the 47 suspects, who include an alleged "hit squad" of 37 soldiers.

Many were detained hiding in the mountains above Marmaris, even in caves, in the days after the coup bid that left 248 dead not including the plotters.

Turkish officials say the plot to kill Erdogan was a key part of the plan to depose the elected government they allege was masterminded by the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and his so-called Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO).

The plan was to "neutralise the president," Erdogan’s lawyer Huseyin Aydin told AFP outside the court.

"If our president was neutralised as planned, the course of the coup would have been different. We would have been faced with a different Turkey," he said.

Ankara has repeatedly demanded that the United States extradite Gulen, who lives in a secluded compound in the US state of Pennsylvania.

The preacher, who is on trial in several cases in Turkey, is one of the three suspects still at large in the assassination plot trial.

Onlookers waving Turkish flags chanted slogans against the accused and Gulen, including "Execution"! and "Game Over, FETO".