In April 2018, in the lawsuit which has been filed against 15 employees of daily Zaman, 9 of them were arrested, the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court has sentenced Cihan news agency executives Hakan Taşdelen, Ahmet Metin Sekizkardeş and Faruk Akkan, general director of the Cihan news agency, to 9 years of imprisonment and a continuation of their imprisonment while the case is on appeal for “membership in a terrorist organisation [FETÖ]” The court has also sentenced to 7 years 6 months of imprisonment to Cihan news agency employees Osman Nuri Arslan, Ahmet İrem and Yüksel Durgut and decided for a continuation of their release under judicial supervision. The same court sentenced Cuma Kaya, Alaattin Güner, Hüseyin Turan to 5 years of imprisonment and Murat Avcıoğlu to 3 years, 1 month and 15 days of imprisonment and ruled to release them on their own recognizance. 

The İstanbul court has decided on the acquittal of Zafer Özsoy, Hüseyin Belli, Onur Kutlu, İsmail Küçük and Ali Hüseyin Çelebi on the charge of membership in a terrorist organisation and ruled to release all of them from prison.

The court ruled to separate the files of Şeref Yılmaz, Osman Nuri Öztürk and Süleyman Sargın, the general director of Irmak TV, from the case, while it acquitted all other defendants of the charge of involvement in a coup attempt.

The İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court acquitted all defendants of the charge, “abolishing, replacing or preventing the implementation of, through force and violence, the constitutional order of the Republic of Turkey [coup plotting]”