Prosecution
During Turkey's media purge after the failed July 2016 coup d'état on 23 September 2016, Altan was arrested. He was accused of sending "subliminal messages" to encourage 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt planners.
In September 2017, while banned from written communications, Altan produced an essay The Writer's Paradox in which he says: 'I am writing these words from a prison cell ... But wait. Before you start playing the drums of mercy for me listen to what I will tell you ... They may have the power to imprison me but no one has the power to keep me in prison. I am a writer.' The essay was published on 18 September 2017, on the eve of Altan's trial: in English by The Society of Authors (translated by Yasemin Çongar) and in the original Turkish by English PEN.
As the trial began, many authors spoke out in support of Altan. Neil Gaiman said "I hope that everyone who can read, whatever their politics, reads Ahmet Altan's response to his imprisonment. Repressive regimes hope that if they lock up writers they are also locking up ideas. This will always fail." Joanne Harris said "Writers exist to question, to challenge, sometimes even to ridicule - the status quo. For a government to imprison a writer for doing this is to attack, not only freedom of speech but freedom of the imagination. It is a backward, oppressive and ultimately futile gesture that can only lead to greater and more damaging social unrest."
On 16 February 2018, Ahmet, along with his brother Mehmet Altan, was sentenced to life imprisonment. From prison, he wrote notes he gave to his lawyers, and published his memoirs under the title I Will Never See the World Again, translated into English by Yasemin Çongar. The book was longlisted for the 2019 Baillie Gifford Prize for non-fiction and is published in 17 countries around the world. But it is not published in Turkish as Altan has concern about the safety of the publisher.
On 4 November 2019, Altan was sentenced to 10 years and 6 months imprisonment by the court of cassation, but then the court ordered his release on probation. On 12 November 2019 the police detained him again after a ruling reversing his release.
Altan subsequently stated that "...the CHP hates us because of the Balyoz and Ergenekon trials, and the AKP hates us for calling [him] a dictator..." and that "these things brought me to the point of siding with Atatürk. He [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] views Atatürk as a rival and takes down his portraits. Today, we find ourselves longing for Atatürk. What is being done to Can Dündar and Cumhuriyet also be done to the CHP.
On 25 November 2019, Altan was awarded the Geschwister Scholl Prize, a literary award of the Bavarian branch of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.
Altan was released from prison on 14 April 2021 after order by the Court of Cassation.
