The Turkish Justice Ministry is working on a legal formula to retry hundreds of retired and serving military officers convicted in 2013 on plotting to unseat the government. Bolstering the move for a retrial, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on 4 January he would support the officers being retried. The government's green light for the retrial comes amid a high-profile corruption and bribery scandal that has hit key allies to Erdogan, prompting speculation that the Turkish prime minister is seeking to reach out to the generals - whose political power he has previously sought to suppress. Hundreds of former soldiers, including former chief of general staffGeneral Ilker Basbug, as well as lawyers, politicians, and journalists are serving sentences of up to life imprisonment as a result of the Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer) coup trials.
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