Four separate lawsuits were filed against journalist Pelin Ünker for her articles about the “Paradise Papers” documents, which she published on Cumhuriyet Newspaper in 2017 while serving as its economics editor. She was charged with “publicly insulting a state official” and “slander via the media” in two criminal lawsuits filed by the prime minister and a minister. She faced a total of 12 years, 8 months in prison, as well as 510 thousand TL in damages. She was sentenced to 1 year, 1 month, 15 days in prison, but this was overturned by the court of appeal, which condemned her to a fine of 7 thousand 80 TL. One lawsuit against her was dropped as the legal deadline for filing the lawsuit had been missed, and the court of appeal ruled to acquit her. She continues to stand trial.
