A lawsuit was filed against Jiyan Haber (Jiyan News) Executive Director İdris Yayla, along with Mezopotamya Agency (MA) Executive Director and Managing Editor Ferhat Çelik, for reporting that the prosecutor İ. K., who conducted the investigation into the helicopter drop of two citizens in Van, and the prosecutor who detained journalists who covered the incident were the same person.

Çelik and Yayla were charged at Van 2nd High Criminal Court with “disclosing or publishing the identities of public officials who took part in the fight against terrorism or targeting people in this way” (TMK 6).

In the third hearing, the prosecution presented its final opinion in the absence of the journalists and their lawyers. The prosecution claimed that Çelik and Yayla did not fulfill their obligations as journalists and that “… the defendants committed the crime attributed to them by exposing the complainant, who is a public official conducting the investigation, by reducing the subject of the news report to a more specific one, when it would have been sufficient to mention the name of the institution conducting the investigation”. He demanded that they be punished.

The court announced its verdict at the fourth hearing and sentenced Çelik and Yayla to 1 year and 3 months each (May 4).