Silivri (Turkey): A Turkish court today began hearing a case against 86 people accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamist-rooted government after a chaotic opening that forced an immediate adjournment.
The judge ordered a pause within minutes after lawyers protested they could not work properly in the tiny courtroom, packed with supporters of the accused, spectators and an army of journalists.
"I have been doing this job for 50 years and never saw such conditions," one of the lawyers said as others complained they did not have space even to use their laptop computers -- the charge sheet alone is about 2,455 pages long.
The court later resumed the case, but said it would first hear the testimonies of the 46 suspects remanded in custody.
The remaning suspects will give testimony in separate hearings, it said.
The judge also ordered that a video screen be set up in an adjoining room for journalists and relatives of the defendants to watch the proceedings at the courtroom in a prison complex in Silivri, a town near Istanbul.
The case against the so-called Ergenekon group has deepened the rift between supporters of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) and hardline secularists, who see the case as a government-backed campaign to bully opponents.
The suspects were to answer about 30 separate charges ranging from membership in a terrorist group and instigating an armed uprising against the government to arson and illegal possession of weapons.
They include retired army officers, leftist politicians, journalists, members of secularist associations, academics and underworld figures.
