Article 301's old form before 2005 (and also the new form after the amendments in 2008) required that prosecution under the article needs to be approved by the Ministry of Justice. A few minutes after Pamuk's trial started on 16 December, the judge found that this approval had not yet been received and suspended the proceedings. In an interview published in the "Akşam" newspaper the same day, the then Justice Minister Cemil Çiçek said he had not yet received Pamuk's file but would study it thoroughly once it came.