The Greek Supreme Court denied Turkey's request for the extradition of eight former military personnel who escaped to Greece following the failed coup attempt on July 15, which was organized by the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ).
The Greek court previously postponed its decision on Jan. 23, claiming that one of the judges had an accident before the judges' meeting while the other two judges are yet to deliver their decision.
The trial finally took place on Thursday and the Greek judges ruled that none of the eight soldiers who illegally crossed the Turkish-Greek border will be extradited to Turkey.
Shortly after the Court's decision, an Istanbul court approved a request from prosecutors to issue arrest warrant in absentia for the soldiers.
In response to the Greek court's decision, the Turkish Ministry of Justice submitted a second extradition request for the eight FETÖ coup soldiers in Greece on Friday.
After the July 15 coup attempt, eight soldiers, including two commanders, four captains and two sergeants, had escaped to Greece on a Sikorsky helicopter and landed in Alexandroupolis. Following their landing, the eight suspected FETÖ members asked for asylum from Greek authorities. Before their asylum request was taken to the court, a Greek court sentenced the eight men to a suspended two-month jail sentence for illegal entry into Greece. Ankara has formally requested from Greece the extradition of the FETÖ members who were allegedly behind the coup attempt.
Previously the asylum requests for three soldiers out of the eight were denied by the Greek court. The trio had claimed that they do not share the ideology of FETÖ, arguing instead that they follow the ideology of Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and contended that they had no knowledge of the coup attempt: "We just followed orders," the soldiers said, claiming that they did not flee to Greece on purpose.
