© Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesRelatives of Turkish officers in Silivri, left, react to a court decision in the coup trial.
Istanbul - A Turkish court found more than 300 active and retired military officers guilty of plotting to overthrow the government, in a sign that the judiciary is joining a government-led effort to strip the armed forces of political influence.
The decision Friday comes after more than two years of raids, detentions and hearings, with 365 people - including some civilians - put on trial for participating in an alleged plot called Sledgehammer. Retired and active officers received as much as 20 years in prison for seeking to destabilize Turkey through clandestine agitation and prepare the grounds for a coup. Of the total, 36 were acquitted.
The defendants deny the charges leveled by the state and upheld by the court.
Celal Urgen, an attorney for retired Gen. Çetin Dogan, said the defendants planned to appeal the decision, but that there was little hope for success.
"There is no free judiciary here, on the contrary, there is a judicial system that is the backyard of the government," he said in a televised speech after the verdict was announced.
Some commentators said that while the outcome was expected, the sentences seemed heavy-handed. Most people in Turkey see the verdict as a blow to the military, once the country's leading political player and self-appointed defender of the secular republic since it was established in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, a general who became the first president.
Comment: From a graduate of a US University to his crisp English, it would be wise of many countries to keep a close eye on Egypt's new President.