The 13th High Criminal Court of Istanbul has filed a lawsuit against co-owners Mustafa Kara and İsmail Gökhan Bayram, and the responsible managing editor Gökhan Çetin of Hayatın Sesi TV. The prosecutor has requested that each of the three defendants be sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment for allegedly “continuously propagandising for terrorist organisations” namely ISIS, PKK and TAK – an independent faction of the PKK, on the grounds of airing the news stories concerning some bomb attacks and military operations in the southeastern district of Cizre in the years of 2015 and 2016.
Journalists were sentenced to three years and nine months of imprisonment each on October 19, 2018.
On December 6, the 27th Penal Chamber of Istanbul Regional Court of Justice reverses the prison sentence given to three managers of the Hayatın Sesi – owner Mustafa Kara, his partner İsmail Gökhan Bayram and the responsible managing editor Gökhan Çetin – and acquitted them (6 December).