ISTANBUL - An Istanbul court ruled Wednesday to accept a second indictment in Ergenekon case in which prosecutors seek imprisonment for 56 suspects.
The second indictment means another case for the court that also ruled not to combine two files. The court will hold the first hearing on the second case on July 20, 2009.
Prosecutors had sent the second indictment two weeks ago to the Istanbul High Criminal Court under the Ergenekon probe that was launched in 2007 when a cache of explosives was discovered in a police raid on an Istanbul shanty house.
The 1909-page indictment includes accusations against 56 suspects, twelve of whom are accused of being the masterminds of the alleged criminal network. Nineteen of those suspects have already been under arrest.
Eighty-six people --including retired generals Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur, businessman Sinan Aygun, journalist Mustafa Balbay, former police chief Adil Serdar Sacan, politician and an ex-journalist Tuncay Ozkan and Ferda Paksut, spouse of a Constitutional Court member-- are accused of being part of a terrorist organization and plotting to overthrow the government by force.
An alleged criminal network that came to be known as "Ergenekon" was revealed after police seized 27 grenades, TNT explosives and fuses in a shanty house in Istanbul on June 12, 2007 and Istanbul Chief Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation into weapons. Police waged operations in several provinces and detained a number of people, including retired senior army officers, journalists and businessmen, for their alleged involvement in the network.
(TÇ-AÖ)