The trial of 29 police officers accused of supporting the failed coup attempt in July started in Istanbul’s Silivri courthouse and penal complex on Dec. 27. The officers are charged with not relaying orders from the General Directorate of Security (Turkey’s national police department) to their colleagues and subordinates to resist the uprising as well as ignoring direct orders from Istanbul Police Chief Mustafa Caliskan to not turn over their weapons to the soldiers. Turkish police along with military forces loyal to the government had played a critical role in thwarting the coup attempt.

Not surprisingly, the 29 officers are also accused of being part of a clandestine network allegedly run by the Pennsylvania-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen that the Turkish government and Turks across the political spectrum derisively refer to as the Fethullah Gulen Terror Organization or FETO. Many Turks think Gulen masterminded the coup attempt.

Because this is the first prosecution of suspected Gulenists that were purged from their jobs, the prosecution, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its supporters are making a point of showing that the trial is free and fair. Mehmet Sari, the president of the Turkish Lawyers’ Association, who is acting as a non-party intervener in the case, told reporters outside the Silivri complex that it was “necessary to give the impression that the trial is conducted justly and impartially.” Sari attested that today’s proceedings, in which both the defendants and their lawyers had their say in court, proved that “the right of defense was respected and the trial took place in an independent manner.” However, as several Al-Monitor writers have pointed out in the past months, the AKP government’s decision to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and pressure private companies to either close down or fire employees for suspected ties to Gulen are creating deep social divisions and mass public trauma.

Meanwhile, there has been another interesting development in the Turkish legal system. A group of lawyers submitted a criminal complaint to the Istanbul prosecutor’s office against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Pro-government daily Yeni Akit reported that the group accused Assad and his chain of command of “genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, homicide, deliberate injury, denying rights and liberties, torture and sexual assault,” and claimed that Turkey has “universal jurisdiction” over the case.