The public prosecutor's office has demanded long prison sentences for the five Kurdish defendants in the PKK trial in Stuttgart-Stammheim. Veysel S. is to remain in prison for five years and four months as an alleged leading member of the PKK.
Almost two years after the start of the trial at the Stuttgart-Stammheim Higher Regional Court, the public prosecutor's office has demanded heavy prison sentences for the five Kurdish defendants. Veysel S., alleged to be a leading member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is to remain in prison for five years and four months. He was arrested in June 2018 and has been in pre-trial detention since then.
The prosecution accuses the other defendants of supporting the PKK. Three years and nine months imprisonment was requested for Özkan T., and three years and ten months for Agit K.. Both are also in custody. Cihan A. is to be imprisoned for one year and ten months, Evrim A. for two years and six months.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office's indictment is based largely on the testimony of a key witness who, according to him, worked for the PKK. During this time, he worked in part for the German police and revealed his knowledge of the organization. Ridvan Özdemir had testified extensively in the trial and incriminated the defendants. However, it later turned out that the witness had made largely untrustworthy statements and had lied on essential charges.
Lawyer Dr. Björn Elberling, who represents the defendant Özkan Taş together with lawyer Antonia von der Behrens, had pointed out the political dimension of the proceedings in an interview last month: "Ultimately, the criminal justice system - above all the political authority of the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office - is acting here according to the general political zeitgeist. Prosecution for alleged PKK membership, for example, always requires authorization from the Ministry of Justice. So the government still has it in its hands to end much of this repression with a stroke of the pen. We are leading the fight in the courtroom and for the individual defendants, but the argument can only be won through massive pressure on the government to end its foreign policy course of cooperation with the Erdoğan regime and repression against Kurdish and other opposition figures in this country."
The trial will continue on April 15 with the defense's pleas.
