Greece has decided to free the last four Turkish officers of the group of eight men that fled to the country following the attempted coup in Turkey back in 2016.
All eight servicemen are now under heavy police protection, Kathimerini reports, residing in an undisclosed location until they are allowed to travel to another European state.
The officers were last being held for the past 18 months; that is the maximum detention period under Greek law.
Greece’s Council of State issued a ruling on 23 May granting asylum to the co-pilot of the military helicopter that transferred the servicemen to Greece and now the rest of the officers are also waiting on their papers to be issued after Greece’s Supreme Court rejected all extradition requests from Ankara.
Quoted by the Associated Press, defence lawyer Omiros Zelios said yesterday that the last of his clients was released from police custody last week.
Turkey earlier condemned rulings not to extradite the eight ‘putschists’ as “politically motivated” according to a report published on the Turkish website Daily Sabah dubbing the procedure a “sham trial”.
