Habip Güler was a correspondent for the now-closed Zaman newspaper. He was detained on 29 July 2016 on allegations of “being affiliated with FETÖ media structure”. He was placed in custody the same day on the charge of “membership of an armed organisation”. The indictment demanded that Güler be sentenced to imprisonment of between five years and 10 years on the charge of “membership of an armed organisation”. Güler was released pending trial at the hearing of the trial held on 31 March 2017. However, he was placed in custody again without having been released from prison over the prosecutor’s objection. At the end of the trial, on 8 March 2018, Güler was sentenced to imprisonment of six years and three months on the charge of “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”. The verdict was approved by the court of appeals and the Court of Cassation. Güler was released after having completed his sentence on 10 September 2020. He had been in prison for more than four years when he was released.

He was taken into custody on April 2, 2020 for 5 of his social media posts regarding government’s fundraiser started against the “coronavirus” pandemic. He was arrested on April 3, 2020. He was accused of “publicly provoking hatred and hostility in public”, “publicly degrading the religious values of a section of the public”, “in a successive manner”. He was requested to be sentenced to, from one year 10 months 15 days to seven years of imprisonment. He was released pending trial at the first hearing on May 6, 2020, after being detained for almost a month. He is pending trial.

Worked at Cumhuriyet Daily for 24 years since 1995. A lawsuit was opened about the article “AKP Protection to the Islamic Terror: Bozdağ Covered the Sarin Case” he wrote on October 22, 2015. He was requested to be sentenced to, from 1 year to 4 years of imprisonment for committing the crime of “calumny” against the then Minister of Justice Bekir Bozdağ. He is released pending trial.

Hakan Karasinir is a journalist. He uses Hakan Kara in his professional life. He was prosecuted in the Cumhuriyet trial and spent 9 months in jail. He was convicted of “aiding a terrorist organization, though he doesn’t belong to the structure of it” and sentenced to 3 years 9 months in prison. The Court of Appeal approved the verdict and he had to return to prison to complete the remaining 1 year 23 days of his sentence. The Court of Cassation reversed the decision about Hakan Kara along with all the other defendants of Cumhuriyet Newspaper. Hakan Kara was released on Sept. 12, 2019. However in the retrials, court decided to persist against the Court of Cassation’s decision to overturn.

Halil İbrahim Balta was the economics correspondent for the now-closed Zaman newspaper. He was detained on 2 August 2016 on allegations of “being affiliated with FETÖ media structure”. Balta was placed in custody the same day on the charge of “membership of an armed organisation”. The indictment charged Balta with “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”. The prosecution demanded that Balta be sentenced to imprisonment of between five years and 10 years. He was released at the first hearing of the trial on 31 March 2017. However, Balta was again placed in custody the same day without having been released from prison over the prosecutor’s objection. He was released again at the hearing held on 8 February 2018. At the end of the trial, Balta was sentenced to imprisonment of six years and three months on the charge of “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”. The sentence was approved by the court of appeals and the Court of Cassation.

Halil İbrahim Özdabak was a cartoonist for Yeni Asya newspaper. He was charged with “consecutive terrorist organisation propaganda” over his political cartoons published in the newspaper. The prosecution demanded that Özdabak be sentenced to imprisonment of between one year and three months and eight years and nine months. He was tried without being detained along with Kazım Güleçyüz, the editor-in-chief of the newspaper. At the end of the trial, Özdabak was sentenced to one year, six months and 22 days of imprisonment. The court of appeals examination into the ruling is underway.

Hamza Gündüz was a correspondent for the now-closed Dicle News Agency (DİHA). He was charged with “presenting individuals who served in counterterrorism as potential targets” over sharing a news reports and social media outputs regarding Musa Çitil, who was leading the curfew period operations in Diyarbakır’s Sur district. The prosecutor demanded that Gündüz be sentenced to imprisonment of between one year and three years. He was acquitted at the end of the prosecution process. The prosecutor’s office launched an appeal against the ruling. The examination of the court of appeals concerning the ruling is underway.

Hanım Büşra Erdal was a correspondent and a columnist for the now-closed Zaman newspaper. She was detained on 26 July 2016 on allegations of “being affiliated with FETO media structure”. She was remanded in custody on 29 July 2016. The indictment charged Erdal with “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”. The prosecution demanded that Erdal be sentenced to imprisonment of between five years and 10 years. She was released at the hearing of the trial that was held on 31 March 2017. However, she was remanded in custody again before having been released from the prison upon the prosecutor’s objection. The court ruled that Erdal be sentenced to imprisonment of six years, three months at the end of the trial process on 8 March 2018. The ruling was approved by the court of appeals and Court of Cassation. Erdal has been serving her sentence as a convict at Istanbul Silivri Prison.

Harun Çümen was the editor-in-chief for the now-closed Zaman newspaper. On 4 March 2018, he was detained on charges of “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”. Three days later on 7 March 2018, he was placed in custody on the same charges. The indictment demanded that Çümen be sentenced to imprisonment of between seven years and six months and 15 years on charges of “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”. At the end of the prosecution process on 18 July 2019, he was sentenced to seven years, six months of imprisonment on charges of “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”. The Court of Appeals decision concerning the ruling is pending. Çümen has been serving his prison sentence at Balıkesir Closed Security Prison since 7 March 2018.

Hasan Cemal began his journalism career at Devrim magazine in 1969. After working for Yeni Ortam, Günaydın newspapers and the Anka News Agency, he started to work for the Cumhuriyet newspaper in 1973. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper from 1981 to 1992. He wrote columns for the Sabah and Milliyet newspapers. He has been writing for the T24 news website since 2013. He is the founder and president of the Platform for Independent Journalism: P24. He was prosecuted because of his article titled “From Silvan: They made us get used to the deaths and pains…” (published in T24 on Dec. 4, 2017) and charged with “making propaganda for a terrorist organization.” The court ruled to fine him.

Hasan Yavaşlar was the editor-in-chief of the now-closed Antalya Gazetesi. An investigation was launched concerning him over the complaint of the owner of another local newspaper published in Antalya. He was charged with “consecutively, knowingly and willingly aiding an armed terrorist organisation” in the indictment dated 24 October 2018. The prosecution demanded that Yavaşlar be sentenced to imprisonment of between 10 years, two months and 15 days and 26 years and three months. The trial file concerning him was merged with the trial file in which eight journalists in Antalya were tried at the second hearing of the trial on 24 October 2019. The trial concerning Yavaşlar is currently underway. Yavaşlar is standing trial without remand.

Havva Cuştan is a correspondent for the ETHA News Agency. The prosecutor demanded a sentence of up to 20 years imprisonment for “being a member of a armed terrorist organization” and “making propaganda for a terrorist organization.” She is currently pending trial.

Journalist Hayko Bağdat is being tried through his articles, social media posts and his words on different TV programs on the grounds of “insulting the President” and “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation”. It is known that there a numerous open cases against Bağdat, our research on these case files is ongoing.

She is a reporter with the Cumhuriyet Newspaper. Ocak published a news story reporting that the Ministry of Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak had purchased plots of land along the future trajectory of the Istanbul Canal Project, and Albayrak filed lawsuits against her for “insult”, demanding one year, two months to two years, four months in prison as well as moral compensation of 200 thousand TL. On October 27, 2020, Ocak was acquitted in the trial for the charge of “insult”. Currently Ocak faces five to 14 years in prison as well as 250 thousand TL in moral compensation for her news story about the Bosphorus residence of Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun. Over her article “Luxurious Appurtenances with View over Bosphorus”, Cengiz Holding’s Chairman Mehmet Cengiz filed a lawsuit for 1 million TL in damages; and over her articles on the public tenders organized by Gaziantep’s Şahinbey Municipality, she faces yet another lawsuit for 20 thousand TL in damages. The trials continue and she is not under arrest.

Hicran Urun worked for the Özgürlükçü Demokrasi newspaper as an editor. Urun was arrested in the scope of the operation against the newspaper on April 4, 2018, on the charge of “being a member of a terrorist organization” and has been detained since April 10, 2019.

He wrote columns for a long time. He was sentenced to 6 years and 3 months of prison in the Cumhuriyet trial. The Court of Appeal approved the sentence. Çetinkaya’s lawyers appealed to The Court of Cassation. The Court of Cassation ruled to reverse the decision about Çetinkaya. However in the retrials, court decided to persist against the Court of Cassation’s decision to overturn.

Reporter at JinNews Women’s Agency. She is being tried for making news of the “corruption allegations” regarding the trustees, appointed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Mayorship of Muradiye Province of Muş. She is accused of “publicly insulting a public official”. She is requested to be sentenced to, from one year two months to two years four months of imprisonment. She is released pending trial.

Correspondent for Odatv web-page. She was taken into custody in Manisa, for the article “Odatv reached the footage of the quiet funeral service of the MIT (National Intelligence Agency) member who was martyred in Libya”. She was brought to Istanbul. Following the statement, she was arrested by the court she was forwarded to. The arrest decision was based on the accusations of “causing the capture of the information and documents regarding intelligence actions”, “disclosing the information and documents regarding intelligence actions” and “capturing the information and documents regarding the intelligence actions”. She was requested to be sentenced to from eight to 19 years of imprisonmnet. In the second hearing of the trial on September 9th, 2020, she was acquitted from the charge of “revealing information concerning the state’s security and political interests”. She was condemned to 3 years 9 months in prison for “revealing information concerning National Intelligence Organization (MİT)”. Upon the announcement of the verdict, she was released from prison. The legal proceedings continue at the court of appeal.

Hüseyin Aydın was a correspondent for the now-closed Cihan News Agency. He was detained on 30 July 2016 on allegations of “being affiliated with FETÖ media structure”. Aydın was placed in custody the same day on the charge of “membership of an armed organisation”. The indictment charged Aydın with “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”. The prosecution demanded that Aydın be sentenced to imprisonment of between five years and 10 years. He was released at the first hearing of the trial on 31 March 2017. He was released at the first hearing of the trial on 31 March 2017. Aydın was placed in custody again the same day as part of a new investigation. The second indictment charged him with “attempting to destroy the constitutional order” and “attempting to destroy the government”. The prosecution demanded that Aydın be sentenced to two aggravated life sentences. At the end of the trial, on 8 March 2018, Aydın was sentenced to imprisonment of six years and three months on the charge of “membership of an armed terrorist organisation”. The sentence was approved by the court of appeals and the Court of Cassation. Aydın is currently serving serving his prison sentence as a convict at the Silivri High Security Prison.

He worked for almost 45 years at newspapers such as Özgür Ülke, Özgür Gündem, Halk Gerçeği, Özgürlükçü Demokrasi. Lastly he was a Co-editor-in-Chief at Özgür Gündem Newspaper. He has 63 criminal cases opened against him because of his time there. He was imprisoned after his 3 years 9 months sentence was approved. He was sent to Sinan Prison. He is still being tried for numerous cases. He was released at October 25th, 2019, after the First Package of Judicial Reforms was set in motion at October 24th, 2019, that allowed the appeal process for sentences under 5 years.

He was an editor at Özgür Gündem Newspaper, which was closed with a Decree Law under the State of Emergency. He also worked as a reporter at Evrensel Newspaper. He was arrested on December 24th, 2011 as part of an investigation known to the public as the “KCK Press Trial”. He was detained for 27 months under the scope of this lawsuit. He is currently being tried on charges of “establishing and leading an armed terrorist organization”, facing a prison sentence of 15 to 22.5 years.