UPDATE - 5 ex-soldiers get aggravated life sentences in Istanbul

UPDATES WITH MORE JAIL SENTENCES, HEADLINE CHANGED

By Muhammed Enes Can

ISTANBUL (AA) - Five convicted ex-soldiers linked to Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) were given aggravated life sentences in Istanbul on Thursday for their actions in occupying the port city’s Disaster Coordination Center during the 2016 defeated coup.

The 25th High Criminal Court said the former soldiers had violated the country's constitution.

The ex-soldiers were also sentenced to 41 years behind bars for harming property and causing intentional injury.

A Turkish court also sentenced 24 other FETO convicts, including Turkey's Telecommunications Directorate (TIB)'s former Deputy Chairman Osman Nihat Sen to between 10 years and 68 years in jail.

Sen had been accused by Ankara's Golbasi District Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of “spying”, “destroying the union of the state” and “irregular listening of cryptographic and ordinary phones.”

FETO and its U.S.-based leader Fetullah Gulen orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, which left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Ankara also accuses FETO of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police, and judiciary.