Court finds provocative statements made by police before Rojava demonstration unlawful

The Cologne Police Chief had tried to criminalize support for the Rojava resistance with provocative statements before the central demonstration in Cologne after the Turkish state’s invasion attacks against Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê on 9 October 2019. Two years later, the police chiefs’ claim that the Kurds would resort to violent methods in the demonstration, without any concrete evidence, was brought to the judiciary.

Cologne Police Chief Uwe Jacob was on trial in the lawsuit filed with the complaint of the German organizations that organized the demonstration in 2019.

In the hearings going on at the Cologne Administrative Court since 28 October 2021, the court found the statements made by the police before the demonstration unlawful.

The court ruled that there was not enough concrete evidence to support the police’s assumption that “there will be violence.”

The tribunal pointed out that the police had to “compile well” the allegations they made before the demonstration. The defense lawyers of the police said that “the information about violent incidents came from intelligence sources that cannot be disclosed in accordance with the Law on the Protection of Informants.”

However, the defense was not found sufficient by the court.

If the police apply to the Higher Regional Court in Münster to appeal the decision, they must disclose the source of the information they received.

There will be no criminal action will be taken against the policemen who make provocative statements. However, the ruling is an important warning to the police authorities who want to criminalize demonstrations in the future.

What happened?

On 19 October 2019, a central demonstration was organized in Cologne by various German leftist groups and non-governmental organizations, to condemn the invasion attacks of the Turkish state and to express solidarity with Rojava.

In the demonstration, attended by thousands of people and supported by all German parties except the far-right party AfD, activists demanded an end to the attacks launched by the Turkish state on Girê Spî and Serêkaniyê on 9 October.

But before the demonstration, provocative statements came from the police chiefs at Cologne Police Department.

Cologne Police Chief Uwe Jacob and the police chief in charge of the demonstration, Klaus Rüschenschmidt held a press conference on 18 October 2019, claiming that “according to information we received, a thousand Kurds with guns and knives will participate in the demonstration.”

Attempts by the chiefs of the Cologne Police Department to ban the authorized demonstration, claiming that the demonstrators would attack left and right, were unsuccessful.

After the march and rally, which saw no violence and ended peacefully, the organization called Interventionistische Linke (Interventionist Left) and the Cologne Union Against the Right (Köln gegen Rechts) issued a complaint about the provocative attitude of the police to the judiciary.