ISTANBUL, Turkey, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Fans of a Turkish soccer team, who joined an anti-government protest in 2013, went on trial Tuesday in Istanbul, charged with attempting a coup of the government.
Supporters of Istanbul's Besiktas soccer club, who are called Carsi after the market in the neighborhood of the stadium, participated in demonstrations against the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the city's Gezi Park with hundreds of thousands of other protesters. They were indicted a year later. Thirty-five now face life imprisonment if convicted of attempting to remove the government through violence.