ANKARA (Reuters) – A Turkish courtroom handed down dozens of life sentences on Thursday for among the practically 500 defendants, together with military commanders and pilots, accused of finishing up a 2016 coup try from an air base close to the capital Ankara, Anadolu information company reported.

Greater than 250 individuals have been killed within the try to overthrow the federal government on July 15, 2016 when rogue troopers commandeered warplanes, helicopters and tanks and sought to take management of key state establishments.

The state-owned Anadolu and different media stated 25 F-16 pilots got aggravated life sentences whereas 4 civilians have been every given 79 life sentences.

Former air drive commander Akin Ozturk and others on the Akinci air base close to Ankara have been accused of directing the coup and bombing authorities buildings, together with parliament, and trying to kill President Tayyip Erdogan.

The trial was probably the most excessive profile of dozens of courtroom instances focusing on hundreds of individuals accused of involvement within the coup try, which Ankara blamed on supporters of the U.S.-based Muslim preacher Fethullah Gulen.

The 79-year-old cleric, who was as soon as an ally of Erdogan and who denied any function within the coup, was certainly one of six defendants being tried in absentia. A complete of 475 individuals have been on trial, 365 of them in custody.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay; Writing by Daren Butler; Enhancing by Jonathan Spicer)