ISTANBUL — A Turkish court sentenced 337 people, including military officers and jet fighter pilots, to life sentences on Thursday over the 2016 failed coup attempt.

They were found guilty of the "attempt to overthrow the constitutional order", the "attempted murder of the president", and homicides, according to court documents seen by AFP news agency.

Air force pilots and army commanders were among the nearly 500 defendants accused of trying to overthrow President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

They allegedly directed the plot from the Akinci airbase near Ankara.

Sixty other defendants were also given sentences for various other offenses, while 75 were acquitted.

The massive trial was one of two main trials against suspected members of a network led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating the failed attempt.

Gulen, who was also named among the defendants, has denied involvement in the coup that resulted in some 220 deaths and injured thousands. Some 30 coup-plotters were also killed.

The court ruled for Gulen, an alleged top operative in his movement, and four other defendants still wanted by the Turkish authorities to be tried separately over the charges.

Prosecutors accused the coup-plotters of using Akinci air base as their headquarters. Turkey's then military chief Gen. Hulusi Akar — the current defense minister — and other commanders were held captive for several hours at the base on the night of the coup.

The prosecutors charged the defendants with attempts against the state and the constitutional order, attempt to assassinate the president, leading a terrorist organization, and murder, among other charges.

The trial, which opened on Aug. 1, 2017, was part of a post-coup crackdown that has imprisoned around 77,000 people and seen another 130,000 fired from their government jobs. — Courtesy Euro news