The Ankara 3rd Criminal Court of First Instance has ruled that Yılmaz Özdil shall be sentenced to 5 months in prison on the grounds of a speech that he made on “Halk Arenası” (People’s Arena) program on Halk TV channel on November 10, 2017 and where he put an emphasis on the importance of meritocracy in the state. The prison sentence has been given on charge of “publicly defaming or degrading act and insult directed towards harming senior-subordinate relations and eliminating the sense of trust to chiefs or commanders” as per the Military Criminal Code. The pronouncement of the verdict has been suspended (November 10).