After a four-month trial, the State Protection Senate of the Koblenz Higher Regional Court sentenced the Kurdish activist Gökmen Çakil to three years and five months in prison. After 15 days of hearings, the court considered it proven that Çakil was involved with the PKK and had thus committed a terrorist offense under Section 129b of the German Criminal Code. With the verdict, the State Protection Senate fell just three months short of the prosecution's demand.

The pronouncement of the verdict was watched by a large number of people. Yeni Özgür Politika newspaper wrote that the defendant was greeted with applause and the slogan "Bijî Serok Apo" [Long Live Leader Öcalan] as he entered the courtroom. The audience responded to the phrase "In the name of the people" when the verdict was announced with an angry shout of "In the name of Erdogan!" The protests continued after the trial ended.

Gökmen Çakil had spoken out several times during the trial. During the hearing on January 25, 2021, he expressed his regret that "Kurds and Germans have to face each other in such trials" He said he was convinced that his activities had "harmed neither Germany nor the German people nor German democracy in any way." This is another reason why he finds the accusations of the prosecution "really hurtful." Defining war as "a sad and damned thing" and "a curse for mankind", he asked: "What can you do when you are attacked with tanks, guns and planes?" The Kurds cannot be expected "to surrender before their murderers," he underlined.

The Azadî Legal Aid Fund had stated the following before the verdict was announced: "The 129b trials are not about justice or the independence of judicial decisions, but about foreign and economic policy interests to which the state protection senates of the higher regional courts must submit. Finally, this trial is also based on the authorization of the Federal Ministry of Justice to prosecute political activists of the Kurdistan Workers' Party. In the case of Gökmen Çakil, this general authorization was granted on September 6, 2011, and does not need to be justified nor can it be legally challenged. The Federal Chancellery, the Foreign Ministry and the Federal Ministry of the Interior were/are involved in the decision."