BIANET The court of appeals has upheld the prison sentences in the trial over daily Özgür Gündem, which was closed by a Statutory Decree. At the final hearing of the trial on February 15, 2021, Özgür Gündem newspaper's grant holder Kemal Sancılı, managing editor İnan Kızılkaya, editor-in-chief Zana Kaya and Eren Keskin were sentenced to 20 years, 10 months in prison in total on "terrorism" charges. While Sancılı, Kızılkaya and Keskin were sentenced to 6 years, 3 months each on charge of "organization membership", Kaya was sentenced to 2 years, 1 month for "propagandizing for a terrorist organization". Finding the prison sentences insufficient, the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office applied to the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice and requested that the defendants be separately penalized for "disrupting the unity of the state and integrity of the country", "being members of an organization" and "propagandizing for a terrorist organization". Rejecting the appeal of the prosecutor, the 27th Chamber of the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice, the appeals court, has upheld the verdicts.
