On Monday, the Second Criminal Division of the Berlin Court of Appeal sentenced Kurdish activist Mehmet Karaca to two years’ imprisonment for membership of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The sentence was suspended for three years on probation. The arrest warrant was lifted and Karaca was released after around a year in pre-trial detention.
Organizational activities in the “Berlin sector”
According to the State Security Senate, Karaca led the PKK’s “Sector South 2” in Stuttgart from October 2014 to June 2015, then took over the “Cologne area” and was responsible for the “Sector North” as well as the “Berlin region” and the “Berlin area” from June 2024 until his arrest in November of the same year. The court therefore convicted him of membership in a “terrorist organization abroad” under Sections 129a and 129b of the German Criminal Code (StGB).
Court only partially follows the federal prosecutor’s recommendation
In its closing arguments, the federal prosecutor requested a prison sentence of four years and three months, arguing that Karaca had also held a leading position within the PKK between 2015 and 2024. The Senate did not share this assessment.
Although the court assumed continued membership, it emphasized that there was no authorization for prosecution from the Federal Ministry of Justice pursuant to Section 129b (1) sentence 3 of the German Criminal Code (StGB) for this period. Therefore, it ruled, mere membership during this phase was not prosecutable and could not be used to increase Karaca’s sentence.
Dialogue process taken into account
In the grounds for the judgment, the presiding judge referred to current developments in the relationship between the Turkish government and the Kurdish movement. The court considered the PKK’s announcement, presented by the defense, to end the armed struggle, surrender its weapons, and disband to be a credible statement by the defendant. However, it was not possible to assess whether this process would actually be permanent, it added.
Release from pre-trial detention
As there were no grounds for further detention, Karaca was released from pre-trial custody. He was greeted by dozens of friends and supporters outside the courthouse. Due to limited space, only 30 spectators were allowed into the courtroom, including Member of Parliament Ferat Koçak. Many more interested parties waited outside the courtroom.
AZADÎ Legal Aid Fund: First steps toward decriminalization
The AZADÎ e.V. legal aid fund welcomed the ruling, particularly the consideration given to political developments in Turkey and Kurdistan. However, these could only be the first steps toward decriminalization if the peace process is to be recognized and supported by Germany as well, said the organization, calling for further steps: the withdrawal of the authorization to prosecute the PKK, the lifting of the ban on PKK activities in Germany, and the removal of the PKK from the EU terror list.
Only if the federal government commits to giving politics primacy over a “repressive bureaucracy that has been in place for decades” can true progress be made in the peace process, according to the Legal Aid Fund, which added: “It is now up to the government and parliament to respond constructively to the signals from the Kurdish movement.”