Six years after the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) tried to seize power with a coup, the Turkish judiciary has managed to wrap up 289 trials against the putschists, sentencing 4,891 defendants. The lengthy appeals process has also concluded, with most trials seeking to overturn verdicts still playing out before higher courts.

On July 15, Turkey will mark the sixth anniversary of the coup attempt that killed 251 people and injured hundreds of others. The attempt was quashed thanks to strong public resistance, coupled with the actions of anti-putschist soldiers and law enforcement.

Determined to deliver swift justice, Turkey has set up new courts and massive prison complexes that also include spacious courtrooms. In the aftermath of the putsch bid, prosecutors’ offices across the country launched more than 100,000 investigations into coup-related crimes. They culminated in 289 trials, with the first verdicts handed out in the eastern province of Erzurum, hometown of FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen.

A colonel and a major in the province were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment on Jan. 5, 2017 on charges of violating the Constitution. Most recently, the final coup trial in the western province of Çanakkale concluded with prison sentences for several military officers.

Overall, 3,000 defendants were convicted of charges carrying life sentences. A total of 1,634 defendants, including 85 generals, were given aggravated life imprisonment, a sentence that rules out early release or parole. Another 1,366 defendants were sentenced to life, including 24 former generals and 536 high-ranking military officers. A total of 1,891 defendants were sentenced to lesser prison terms while 2,870 people were freed after they were not found guilty.

One of the most significant trials, which ended with hefty sentences, had to do with an assassination attempt targeting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the time of the coup bid. Thirty-one defendants, including a general accused of coordinating the assassination plot, were given multiple aggravated life imprisonment sentences in the trial that concluded in 2017.

Aggravated life sentences were also handed out in major trials dealing with a large number of defendants in the capital Ankara. Among them was the Akıncı base trial, named after the military base where the coup ringleaders planned and coordinated the attempt. It had the highest number of defendants in coup-related trials with 475 people facing charges. Fifteen military officers and four civilians were given aggravated life sentences in the trial that ended in 2020. In another big trial in the capital, in which 224 people were tried for planning and executing the plot to take over the army, 127 defendants were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment and another 23 were given life sentences in 2019.

Although most military officers who took part in the coup bid were sentenced, the "civilian" members of FETÖ remain more elusive. Only a few were caught red-handed during the attempt, including executives and staff of a FETÖ-linked company who were apparently helping the putschists since they were caught at the Akıncı base when the attempt was quelled. They were sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment but Adil Öksüz, the alleged mastermind of the coup bid on behalf of ringleader Gülen remains at large. Öksüz, originally a theology lecturer, was also captured at the same base but a court released him shortly after in a controversial decision. Since then, he has disappeared and is believed to be abroad.

As for Gülen, the terrorist group's leader continues his life uninterrupted in a posh residence in Pennsylvania in the United States. One of most wanted men in Turkey, he is the main defendant in a myriad of trials on FETÖ's wrongdoings including the 2016 coup bid. Yet, the United States has so far dragged its feet extraditing him, despite multiple requests by Ankara.