STUTTGART – The court case against Merdan K. before the 6th Criminal Division of the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court ended today with a verdict. The court found it proven that the Kurdish activist participated as a member of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) between April 2019 and September 2021. For this reason, it sentenced Merdan K. to two years and nine months in prison for membership in a “terrorist organization abroad” under Sections 129a/b of the Criminal Code.
The verdict had been expected by observers of the proceedings, after all, Merdan K. is one of dozens of Kurdish activists who have been convicted under Sections 129a, 129b of the Criminal Code since the Federal Court of Justice ruled in 2010 that the PKK was a so-called terrorist organization abroad to follow.
Lawyers not surprised by the verdict
In a press release, Merdan K’s defense attorneys, the lawyers Eva Dannenfeldt and Waltraut Autovermietung, described the verdict as a surprise, neither in terms of the tenor nor the sentence. Both the taking of evidence in the main hearing and the judgment showed that the court would have had no interest in admitting other facts or adopting other perspectives than those specified by the prosecution. Instead, the verdict corresponded to what the lawyers had formulated as fears in their plea.
The Senate decided to sentence Merdan K. under adult criminal law, although the accused was still an adolescent at the beginning of the alleged crime period and could have been sentenced under juvenile criminal law. On this point too, the judges complied with the prosecution’s expectations, although the sentence was at least less than the three years and three months imprisonment demanded by the prosecution.
If no appeals against the verdict are successful, Merdan K. will probably have to remain in prison until June 2024, since on the one hand he will be credited with the time he has been in pre-trial detention, but on the other hand with an early release after two-thirds of the detention time for convicts under §§ 129a, 129b StGB is extremely rare.
Red Help: We are angry
A process observer from the Red Aid Stuttgart said after the verdict was announced: “This is just one of three Section 129b proceedings against Kurds in Stuttgart at the moment. We are angry because the judges know the situation in Kurdistan well. It’s not that they are unaware of the atrocities committed by the Turkish government. But that doesn’t matter. The Kurdish activists will be condemned.”
AZADÎ: All terrorism legislation is political enemy criminal law
The Cologne legal aid fund for Kurds AZADÎ eV was also angry: “We not only criticize today’s verdict against Merdan K., but also the persecution of Kurdish activists as ‘terrorists’ according to §§ 129a, 129b StGB in general. The entire terrorism legislation is political enemy criminal law, which is unworthy of a democratic constitutional state and makes the permanent state of emergency the rule. The necessary authorization to prosecute for the application of Section 129b StGB to certain organizations is also to be granted by the Federal Ministry of Justice, which expresses the political character of the persecution even more clearly.”
Demand: lift the PKK ban
AZADÎ demands that the federal government must stop using these legal instruments against the Kurdish movement if it wants to make a contribution to solving the Kurdish question. “The lifting of the almost 30-year ban on PKK activities from 1993 would be another important step towards resolving the conflict through acknowledgment of the Kurdish reality and negotiations with all those involved.”
