Thousands back trial of Turkish coup plotters

Thousands of people in Turkey have poured into the streets to throw their weight behind efforts to try coup leaders plotting to bring down the government, Press TV reported.

Around 5,000 people convened in Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul on Saturday demanding action in an investigation into an alleged coup plot against Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).

The demonstrators called for a free and fair trial of the suspects without foreign intervention.

"We do not want any outside intervention in this trial. The prosecutors must be left free," AFP quoted a spokesman for the protestors as reading out a written statement.

The rallies came two days before the trial of the 56 suspects on coup charges as part of the investigation.

Two retired generals --Sener Eruygur and Hursit Tolon -- are among the suspects, the pair are accused of being senior leaders of a shadowy ultra-nationalist Ergenekon group blamed for plotting a series of attacks and provoking a military coup against the government.

The prosecution wants life sentences against the generals.

The Ergenekon case has been filed against more than 200 people on charges that they sought to establish an unlawful organization to provoke a series of events that would pave the way for a military coup against the current administration in Turkey.

The clandestine Ergenekon organization has been indicted of at least two violent attacks -- the bombing of a secularist newspaper in 2006 and an attack on a court in the same year in which a judge was killed.