ISTANBUL — Turkish prosecutors have demanded two life sentences and an additional 1,900 years in prison for US-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen, blamed by Ankara for masterminding last month’s failed coup, state media reported on Tuesday.
In an 2,527 page indictment approved by prosecutors in the Usak region of western Turkey, Gulen is charged with “attempting to destroy the constitutional order by force” and “forming and running an armed terrorist group” among other charges, the Anadolu news agency reported.
Meanwhile, police launched simultaneous raids on 44 companies in Istanbul and had warrants to detain 120 company executives as part of the investigation into the attempted coup, Anadolu reported.
It said the companies were accused of giving financial support to Gulen’s movement. Police began searches in the Uskudar and Umraniye districts of Istanbul, including buildings belonging to an unnamed holding company, the agency said.
Since the coup, more than 35,000 people have been detained, of whom 17,000 have been placed under formal arrest, and tens of thousands more suspended in a purge of Turkey’s military, law-and-order, education and justice systems.
Before the failed coup, in which more than 240 people were killed, the authorities had already taken over or closed several media companies and detained businessmen on allegations of funding the cleric’s movement.
As part of the coup investigation, police also searched offices at the main courthouse on the Asian side of Istanbul on Wednesday as they raided the complex with detention warrants for 83 judicial personnel, Anadolu reported.
The agency also said officials have made a formal request to Greece for the extradition of eight officers who fled to the neighboring country. It said a Justice Ministry file for the officers’ return has been delivered to Greece.
The six pilots and two engineers fled to Greece in a military helicopter, and Turkey wants them returned to stand trial for their role in the coup.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said a fair trial would represent a harsher punishment for suspected coup plotters than the death penalty — an apparent step back from threats to re-introduce capital punishment. — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had suggested Turkey could bring back capital punishment — abolished in 2004 as part of the country’s reforms to join the EU — in the wake of the July 15 failed coup.
