According to Turkish state news agency Anadolu, a court on Friday sentenced 25 people, including a former coast guard commander, to life imprisonment for attempting to overthrow the government during last year’s failed coup, Reuters reported.

Prosecutors charged 28 people in connection to incidents at a naval base located in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on July 15 — the night the attempted coup took place, the report said. Three suspects in the case were found not guilty.

The Ankara court identified the coast guard commander as Hakan Ustem.

The trial is among the first in a series of trials against suspects accused of being involved in the failed takeover where more than 240 people were killed when rebel soldiers seized tanks, warplanes and helicopters and launched attacks on state institutions including parliament, the report said.





Earlier this month, a court found 42 former soldiers guilty for the attempted murder of Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during the failed coup and most of them were sentenced to life in prison, the report said.

The Turkish government implicated the network of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen — who was a former ally of Erdogan — for organizing the failed takeover, the report said.

Gulen — who voluntarily lived in exile in Pennsylvania since 1999 — refuted claims of involvement and denounced the incident, according to Reuters.

— WN.com, Jubilee Baez