Saylan was terminally ill with cancer at the time and died shortly thereafter. But the case against her associates continued and became part of a vast wave of trials directed against opponents of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his allies in the powerful Gülen movement, made up of the followers of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen.
当时的萨伊兰已经罹患癌症晚期，不久便撒手人寰。但针对她同事的案件并未就此中止，反而演变成针对总理埃尔多安及其强大的葛兰运动（Gülen，由伊斯兰教牧师葛兰的追随者创立）盟友的反对者的审判潮。