On May 17 2018, Diyarbakır the 7th High Criminal Court sentenced Aydın Atar, the chief editor in charge for shuttered Azadiya Welat by the statutory decree, to 6 years 4 months for “propagandising for a terrorist organisation” over a number of news stories published in nine different issues of the newspaper between 2012 and 2013.
Previously, the Diyarbakır 7th High Criminal Court had had merged 3 cases with the charge of ” propagandizing for a terrorist organization” into one and had sentenced Atar to 10 years 3 months of imprisonment in 2013, which was reversed by the Supreme Court of Appeals.