Orhan Erinç, the chair of the Cumhuriyet Foundation, and the newspaper’s Economics Correspondent and Finance Editor Pelin Ünker are accused of “attacking personal rights” due to the “Paradise Papers” articles that took as their subject Turkey’s Energy Minister and President Erdoğan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak, his brother Serhat Albayrak and businessman Ahmet Çalık over their off-shore accounts in Malta.
Yıldırım filed a separate defamation case against Ünker and the chair of the Cumhuriyet Foundation Orhan Erinç, asking 500.000 Turkish lira as compensation.
On 28 February, the Anadolu 24th Civil Court of First Instance decided in the favor of former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and his sons and ordered journalist to pay a sum of TL 30,000 in compensation to Yıldırım and sons.