World Bulletin / News Desk

The 10th High Criminal Court on Friday accepted a request from Prosecutor Hüseyin Kaplan to change the court hearing the ongoing Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup plan trial.

Kaplan, who represented the prosecution in Friday's hearing after the chief prosecutor in the case, Savaş Kırbaş, was reassigned by the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) on Wednesday, told the court that there is a need to change the court hearing Sledgehammer as the trial has almost reached a dead end as defense lawyers have been refusing to attend hearings in protest of the court's decisions.

He added that according to Article 19 of the Code on Criminal Procedure, the case must be transferred to the Public Prosecutor's Office before it can be forwarded to a different court.

The Sledgehammer plan is alleged to have been devised by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to create chaos in society by bombing mosques and attacking popular museums. The desired result was to increase pressure on the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government for failing to provide security for its citizens. The attacks were to eventually lead to a military coup.

The HSYK recently reassigned 2,335 judges and prosecutors as part of a large-scale reshuffle, divesting some key prosecutors of their special authority and removing them from critical investigations such as an ongoing match-fixing probe and several coup investigations. Kırbaş, the specially authorized prosecutor overseeing the Sledgehammer investigation, was removed from his post by the HSYK and appointed İstanbul deputy chief public prosecutor.