A Turkish court on Thursday sentenced veteran journalists Nazlı Ilıcak and Ahmet Altan to reduced prison terms in their third retrial on charges of “aiding a terrorist organization without being a member of that organization,” the Bianet news website reported.
The İstanbul 26th High Criminal Court sentenced Ilıcak to more than three years in prison and Altan to more than four years. Earlier rulings in the case had been overturned three times by Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals.
Ilıcak and Altan were among a group of journalists and media executives arrested following a coup attempt on July 15, 2016 — Ilıcak on July 30 and Altan on September 10. The prosecutors accused them of broadcasting “subliminal messages” in support of the coup.
In February 2018 the court sentenced Ilıcak and Altan, along with the other defendants, to life in prison for “attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.”
In July 2019 the Supreme Court of Appeals overturned that verdict, ruling that the two should instead be tried on the lesser charge of “knowingly and willingly aiding a terrorist organization without being a member of that organization,” referring to faith-based Gülen movement.
In November 2019 a retrial resulted in sentences of more than nine years for both journalists, though they were released pending appeal. Altan was rearrested days later on grounds of flight risk, then released again in April 2021.
That sentence was again overturned by the Supreme Court of Appeals in April 2021 because the court had failed to apply standard sentence reductions required by law. A subsequent ruling in February 2024 of more than five years in prison was also appealed and overturned, leading to the current retrial.
Following their arrests, Ilıcak spent three years, three months behind bars. Altan, due to his rearrest, served a total of four years and seven months in prison.
The charges reflect a yearslong government crackdown on the Gülen movement. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s campaign against the movement began after corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as members of his family and inner circle, which he dismissed as a conspiracy, and formally designated it as a terrorist organization in May 2016.
Following the July 15, 2016, coup attempt, Erdoğan immediately accused the Gülen movement, inspired by the late US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, of orchestrating the plot and significantly expanded an already underway crackdown on the movement’s supporters. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Since the failed coup, dozens of journalists have faced similar charges, defending their work and denying any ties to the movement. Many observers accuse the Turkish government of using Gülen-linked charges as a pretext to silence critics, a concern international organizations and press freedom groups have repeatedly raised as independent and opposition media in Turkey have come under growing pressure over the past decade.
According to Expression Interrupted, a press freedom monitoring group, 27 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey. The country’s deteriorating media landscape was further pointed out in the 2025 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), where it was ranked 159th out of 180 nations.
