On 27 May 1960 the armed forces staged a "coup d'etat". Bayar first tried to resist the officers who came to take him over at the Çankaya Mansion on the morning of the coup, then he tried to commit suicide by holding the pistol in his jacket pocket to his temple. However the soldiers, who were more agile than the 77-year-old Bayar, managed to take the gun from him. Bayar was arrested along with other Democrats, and was tried at the High Court of Justice in Yassıada on charges of "treason" and "violating the constitution". While he was imprisoned in Yassıada, on September 25, 1960, he tried again to commit suicide with a waist belt but failed. He was sentenced to death on September 15, 1961. The National Unity Committee approved the death sentence for Menderes, Zorlu and Polatkan, but the punishment for Bayar and other 12 party members was commuted to life imprisonment. Bayar was transferred from Yassıada to Kayseri Prison but he was released on 7 November 1964 due to ill health.