A Turkish court on Thursday handed down life sentences to 24 suspects over the 2016 failed coup to overthrow Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The trial of 224 suspects, which began in May 2017, is one of the biggest trials relating to the insurgency. The long suspect list is headed by U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating the attempted-ouster, which resulted in hundreds dead and thousands more injured. Gulen, currently residing in Pennsylvania, has denied the allegations. He was stripped of his Turkish citizenship in 2017. More than 77,000 people have been jailed for the attempted coup and are awaiting trial; Turkey ordered the arrest of 128 more military personnel earlier this week. An estimated 150,000 military and government personnel have been relieved of their duties. Erdogan’s opponents inside Turkey and abroad accuse him of using the attempted coup as a pretext to crackdown on dissent and consolidate his power.
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