Turkey's military prosecutor has accused two retired junior officers of stealing grenades police say were taken to help engineer an army coup against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, state broadcaster TRT said today.
Military prosecution of the officers, for embezzling army property, would mark the first formal judicial involvement of the powerful army in a case that has unsettled Turkey, hit financial markets and worried foreign investors.
The two officers were among 86 people indicted this week on charges of plotting to topple the AK Party government, suspected by the military and by secularists of pursuing a secret Islamist agenda.
Two senior retired generals, critics of the government, have also been arrested but not yet charged.
Some opponents of the government see the coup charge as government revenge for court moves to outlaw AK and ban Mr Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul from party politics.
AK, which denies Islamist ambitions and has steered a pro-Western course, says it has put no pressure on the judiciary.
The discovery of the 27 grenades in a house in Istanbul and explosives in the northwestern town of Eskisehir last year triggered an investigation of the shadowy ultra-nationalist "Ergenekon" group.
It now stands accused of planning to sow chaos with bombings, assassinations and public protests.
The civilian prosecutor says the aim was to force the army to topple the government, take power to restore order.
Reuters