Turkey coup trial delayed by reading

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Turkish prosecutors could spend up to 280 hours in court reading aloud a 2,455-page indictment against 86 defendants accused of plotting a coup, observers say.

Attorneys for some of the suspected members of the group Ergenekon demanded that the lengthy indictment be read aloud and prosecutor Mehmet Ali Pekguzel had succeeded in reading 75 pages of it at the end of the first day, the Turkish newspaper Today's Zaman reported.

The newspaper said some of the suspects, including former Istanbul University Rector Kemal Alemdaroglu, went outside the courtroom and didn't listen to the reading.

The trial is being held at a makeshift courtroom inside Silivri Prison west of Istanbul. The suspects on trial, 46 of whom are being held in custody, are charged with membership in an armed terrorist group, attempting to overthrow the government and other crimes, the newspaper said.