
{BBC NEWS Online} – A former air force commander has denied being a ringleader of Friday’s attempted military coup in Turkey.
Gen Akin Ozturk and 26 senior officers were charged with treason and remanded in custody by a court on Monday, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
But in a statement to prosecutors, the general insisted: “I am not the person who planned or led the coup.”
Anadolu had earlier quoted him as telling interrogators that he had “acted with intention to stage a coup”.
Officials have blamed the unrest, which killed at least 232 people and wounded 1,400, on the US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen and the “parallel structure” they say he has formed to topple the government. READ MORE OF THIS REPORT