Journalist sentenced to jail in Turkey over investigation into Yıldırım's sons offshores

Turkish journalist Pelin Ünker has been sentenced to more than a year in jail for her work on the Paradise Papers investigation into offshore tax havens, because it revealed details of the business activities of the country’s former prime minister Binali Yıldırım and his sons.

Ünker was found guilty in an Istanbul court of "defamation and insult" for writing about companies in Malta owned by Yıldırım and his sons, Cumhuriyet newspaper reported.

The journalist was also fined $1615.

After the sentence was issued, Ünker told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) she intended to appeal, pointing out that the Yildirim family had admitted that articles about their Maltese businesses were accurate.