Turkey to Limit Powers of Special Courts Probing Coup Plots

Turkey’s parliament will vote on a draft law that seeks to limit the powers of the country’s special courts, the institutions that have been investigating alleged plots to overthrow the government, Anatolian agency reported, citing Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag.

Existing cases at the courts, which include the prosecution of several alleged coup plots and a match-fixing probe in Turkish soccer, won’t be affected by the amendments in the law, he is cited as saying.

The special courts and prosecutors attached to them have jailed dozens of senior military officers as well as journalists, politicians and academics, as part of probes into alleged conspiracies against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government and a previous Islamist-led administration.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ercan Ersoy in Istanbul at eersoy@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at bkammel@bloomberg.net