Due to growing concerns over the spread of coronavirus in the prisons, the Turkish government drafted a law that would release up to 100,000 prisoners. During these discussions in Parliament, lawmakers added an extra article stating that crimes committed involving MIT would effectively be excluded from the scope of the newly minted law; the six journalists were pointedly excluded in the lessening of the prison sentences. Organized crime bosses, convicted murderers and thieves, among other criminals, were freed from prison while journalists, lawyers and bloggers remained behind bars over so-called “terrorism” charges, as violations of the law as it pertains to MIT were removed from the “amnesty” regulation.