Police in the coastal town of Bodrum detained Ayşe Nazlı Ilıcak — a former commentator for the pro-opposition daily newspaper Özgür Düşünce and Can Erzincan TV who is better known by her pen name, Nazlı Ilıcak — on July 26, 2016. She was transferred to Istanbul for questioning as part of a sweeping purge of journalists and others suspected of following exiled preacher Fethullah Gülen, according to press reports. The government accused Gülen, who died in 2024, of maintaining a terrorist organization and "parallel state structure" (or FETÖ/PDY, as the government calls it) within Turkey that it blames for orchestrating a failed military coup on July 15, 2016. Ilıcak was released in November 2019, but was found guilty in March 2026 on charges of aiding a terrorist organization. As of April 2026, she remained free pending appeal.
Özgür Düşünce and Can Erzincan TV were among the more than 100 newspapers, broadcasters, news agencies, and magazines the Turkish government closed by decree on July 27, 2016, using emergency powers it assumed after the attempted coup, saying the media outlets were FETÖ/PDY mouthpieces.
Istanbul's Fifth Court of Penal Peace on July 30, 2016, arraigned Ilıcak and 16 other journalists, ordering them jailed pending trial on charges of "being members of an armed terrorist organization," according to the media monitoring group P24. The daily newspaper Hürriyet reported that the 17 journalists were questioned by prosecutors on accusations of "being members of an armed terrorist organization," "founding or leading an armed terrorist organization," "knowingly and willingly helping [a terrorist] organization without being involved in the organization's hierarchical structure," and "committing crimes in the name of a [terrorist] organization without being a member."
Ilıcak’s trial began in Istanbul on July 19, 2017. Her co-defendants are the brothers Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan; Fevzi Yazıcı, the former layout editor for the shuttered newspaper Zaman; Yakup Şimşek, the newspaper's former advertising director; and Şükrü Tuğrul Özşengül, a former police academy instructor and TV commentator, according to reports.
The defendants were all charged with: “attempting to eliminate the Constitutional order,” “attempting to eliminate the government of Turkey or to prevent it from its duties partially or totally through violence and force,” “attempting to eliminate the parliament of Turkey or to prevent it from its duties partially or totally through violence and force,” and “aiding an armed terrorist organization without being a member,” according to the indictment, which CPJ reviewed.
Evidence cited against Ilıcak in the indictment include a notebook, social media posts, a TV debate she hosted, during which the Altan brothers allegedly sent subliminal messages in favor of a military coup, her 2012 book, “Her Taşın Altında 'The Cemaat' mı Var?” (“Is there ‘the ‘Gülen Community’ under every rock?”), and newspaper columns she wrote in 1980, which the prosecutors said were supportive of a coup that year. The incitement also listed her communication with other alleged FETÖ members.
All the defendants denied the charges.
On February 16, 2018, a court sentenced Ilıcak, alongside Mehmet Altan, Ahmet Altan, Yazıcı, and Şimşek, to life in prison without parole for “attempting, through violence and force, to disrupt and replace the order as recognized by Turkey's Constitution,” according to news reports.
On October 2, 2018, a local appeals court in Istanbul upheld the life sentences, according to reports. The journalists’ lawyers said they will appeal.
At the retrial on November 4, 2019, a court convicted Ilıcak of “aiding a [terrorist] organization without being a member” and sentenced her to nine years and eight months in prison, BBC Turkey reported. She was released on probation for time served. Ahmet Altan was also convicted of “aiding a [terrorist] organization without being a member” and sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison, BBC Turkey reported, though he was also released on probation for time served. Yazıcı was convicted of “being a member of a [terrorist] organization” and sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison.
The Supreme Court of Appeals overturned the 2019 “aiding a [terrorist] organization without being a member” verdict in 2021 over a technicality for both Ilıcak and Altan and ordered another retrial. The local court found the two journalists guilty once more in 2024, with updated sentences of five years and three months for Ilıcak and six years, three months, and 18 days for Altan. The court overturned this verdict too, in 2025, which has led to another retrial.
On March 13, 2026, Ilıcak and Altan were found guilty by the court once more and sentenced to four years and six months and three years and six months in prison, respectively.
In a separate trial on September 6, 2018, in which Ilıcak was charged with "revealing information regarding state security that is supposed to be secret for espionage purposes," a prosecutor asked for a life sentence for her, news reports said. Ilıcak, who attended the hearing via teleconference from prison, said she received the document in question — about a religious group in Turkey — via Twitter in 2014, and so the information was already public when she wrote about it. On January 22, 2019, she was found guilty and sentenced to five years and 10 months, but remained free pending appeal. The court dropped the “espionage” part from the charge during sentencing. CPJ could not immediately find information about the state of appeal for this trial.
Ilıcak was imprisoned once more from December 4, 2023 to January 28, 2024 in relation to yet another case. After a prosecutor sued her for slander because of a column she published on the now-shuttered Özgür Düşünce website in 2016, she was sentenced to two years and six months in prison on April 19, 2022. She was imprisoned for almost two months after losing her appeal and then released for time served.
CPJ’s email to the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office requesting comment in June 2026 did not receive an immediate reply.