On the grounds of violation of personality rights, the Kilis Criminal Judgeship of Peace, with its decision dated October 14, 2022 and numbered 2022/5339, ruled that the news about Cumhuriyet columnist Barış Pehlivan disclosing that lawyer and AKP Gaziantep Merkez Şehitkamil District Organization Chair Hüseyin Çolak, who had shot a person during a road rage, was a public prosecutor in Kilis as well as Pehlivan’s tweet should be deleted (October 14).
7 May 2025
The Istanbul Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced Cumhuriyet columnist Barış Pehlivan to 1 year and 3 months in prison on the charge of “disclosing personal data”, in a case filed upon the complaint of a prosecutor serving at the Kilis Courthouse.
Pehlivan stated that he only conveyed the prosecutor’s statements out of respect for the right of reply, adding: “Although I reside in Istanbul, the case was filed in Kilis. We objected, but it was rejected. In essence, my article—none of whose words were refuted—was tried by the colleagues of the prosecutor featured in it. This verdict was issued in a case among ‘colleagues.’”