Turkey charges 86 over alleged coup plot

ISTANBUL (AFP) — A top prosecutor announced a long-awaited indictment Monday against 86 people suspected of involvement in a coup plot against Turkey's Islamist-rooted government.

The document is the first to emerge from a year-long investigation into an alleged ultra-nationalist network dubbed "Ergenekon".

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), facing legal action that could lead to it being outlawed, has been accused of using the probe to silence its opponents.

The 2,455-page indictment includes charges of creating an "armed terrorist organisation", using violence to unseat the government and provoking an armed uprising, Istanbul chief prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin told a news conference.

The indictment drawn up by three prosecutors also accuses defendants of instigating attacks including the 2006 bombing of a pro-secular newspaper and an armed attack on a top court the same year that killed a senior judge, Engin said. ...