An indictment has been prepared for Sedef Kabaş for the offence of insulting the President (Turkish Criminal Code article 299) upon the complaint by the lawyers of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. İstanbul 2nd Anatolian Penal Court of First Instance accepted the indictment signed by Prosecutor Burhan Ergar.

Prosecutor Ergar cited 25 tweets of Kabaş as evidence of the crime. The related tweets of Kabaş include her posts between 2016-2021. Kabaş’s tweets criticizing the vaccination policies during the pandemic and her posts where she asks “Where is the 128 billion dollars?” are included in the indictment. The prosecutor mentions “intentional insult” and requests the journalist to be punished.

The first hearing of the case will be held on June 22, 2023 (March 13)

During the second hearing of the case on November 16, Kabaş’s lawyer Selen Sınmaz stated that the judge had lost his impartiality and requested the recusal of the judge. Sınmaz requested that the file be sent to the heavy penal court to discuss the request. The panel decided to send the file to the Anatolian Heavy Penal Court to discuss the request for change of judge. The next hearing is scheduled for February 8 (November 16).

The fourth hearing in the trial was held at the Anadolu 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance on 6 June 2024. The trial was adjourned until 7 November 2024 (June 6).