Twenty-nine Turkish police officers went on trial Tuesday accused of failing to defend President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during the military's failed coup in July, the first such case in Istanbul. The hearings follow a massive crackdown on alleged putschists - 41,000 are under arrest in a national state of emergency and the trials are set to be the most far-reaching legal process in the country's history.
Five months after the coup attempt, small-scale cases involving suspects have already begun in the provinces and on Monday 60 people went on trial in the south-western city of Denizli. But the trial in Istanbul - in a gigantic courthouse outside the Silivri prison in the city - is the most significant to date.