The Diyarbakır 4th High Criminal Court sentenced Zilan Gül, a distributor of the Yeni Yaşam newspaper, citing the phrase “the PKK leader” in an issue of the newspaper in 2024.

The court sentenced Zilan Gül to two years and one month in prison on charges of “knowingly and intentionally aiding an illegal organization” for distributing an issue of a “banned” newspaper. In its ruling, the court cited certain statements and content in the newspaper as grounds for the sentence.

In the reasoning of the decision, the use of the phrase “the PKK Leader” in reference to Abdullah Öcalan in the newspaper issue dated December 19, 2024, was deemed to constitute a criminal offense.

In addition, the systematic coverage of Öcalan's isolation in the newspaper was also used as grounds for the sentence and the newspaper was claimed to have published “glorifying” content about the Kurdish leader.

The court also considered the characterization of Turkey's aggression on the Federal Kurdistan Region as “attacks” or ‘invasion’ to be grounds for prosecution. These terms were interpreted as “an attempt to sabotage the actions of the state.”

The court considered Zilan Gül's defense that she distributed newspapers to earn a living as an attempt to “escape punishment.” Another noteworthy detail is that the decision to ban the newspaper was made on January 3, after the distribution of the issue in question. Still, the court argued that this did not prevent the crime from being committed.