The prison sentence handed to Kurdish journalist Özgür Paksoy in the lawsuit filed against him on 4 January 2016, was upheld.

Accusing Paksoy of making propaganda for an illegal organisation’, a local court demanded a sentence on the grounds that he shared 16 news articles he had written in 2014 on his social media accounts. Posts shared on virtual media accounts that do not belong to Paksoy were also added to the file. On 15 February 2019, Şırnak 2nd High Criminal Court sentenced Paksoy to 2 years 13 months and 15 days for sharing news reports.

While Paksoy's lawyer appealed against the verdict of the local court, the 3rd Criminal Chamber of Antep Regional Court of Appeals decided to reject the appeal on the merits. Paksoy's lawyer then took the case to the Court of Cassation on the grounds that ‘the court decision was made contrary to the procedure and the law, the posts taken as the basis of the judgement were shared on behalf of the client from an account that did not belong to him, the necessary technical examination and research was not carried out, and the material and moral elements of the offence did not occur’.

On 11 June, the Court of Cassation unanimously rejected the appeal and upheld the verdict on the grounds that there was no ‘contradiction to the law’ in the verdict.