Turkey-Coup Plot: Verdicts of Turkish coup plot trial expected on Monday

To decide fate of more than 270 people accused of conspiring against state.

Some 275 people,including military officers,politicians and journalists are facing verdicts in a landmark and divisive trial in Turkey over an alleged conspiracy to overthrow Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Adelet ve Kalkinma Party(AKP,English: Justice and Development Party) government.

The Monday ruling will cap a five year trial that has been a central drama in tensions between the country’s secular and military elite and Erdogan’s Islamic-oriented AKP party.

The defendants are accused of plotting high-profile attacks and other deeds that prosecutors said were aimed at sowing chaos to prepare the way for a military coup.

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General Ilker Basbug,who led the army between 2008 and 2010 and is being prosecuted with 63 others,has rejected all the charges against him.

The prosecutions have helped Erdogan’s government reshape Turkey’s military and assert civilian control in a country that have been host to a series of military coups since the founding of the Republic in 1923.

Critics say prosecutions are aimed at silencing Erdogan’s opponents,as the charged are mostly from the military,a secular-oriented institution at loggerheads with the generally Islamist direction of the AKP. Since Erdogan took office as Prime minister in 2002,hundreds of serving or retired military officers have been arrested.

According to latest reports received,the judge had started sentencing the accused individually. High-profile defendants,including Basbug,await verdict.

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