September 2 () –
The Hanseatic High Court in Hamburg has sentenced Kenan Ayaz to four years and three months in prison for membership of a terrorist organisation, specifically the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
Ayaz was arrested in March 2023 at Larnaca Airport in Cyprus on a European arrest warrant issued by the German Federal Court of Justice and was eventually extradited to Germany in June. The court has concluded that Ayaz was the PKK’s top leader in Germany between 2018 and 2019.
“Whatever the verdict, I am a soldier in my people’s struggle for freedom. Just as the world’s most beautiful women defeated the world’s ugliest men in Rojava, your court is trying me to please the ugliest of these ugly men, the dictator (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan,” Ayaz said before the sentencing, according to the ANF news agency.
“Your support for Erdogan means at the same time supporting the terrorists of the Islamic State. This support returns in the form of deaths in Solingen and Mannheim,” he warned, referring to the recent attacks by the jihadist group.
Following the announcement of the verdict, around 40 people chanted PKK-friendly slogans such as “Long live leader (Abdullah) Ocalan” and “Women, Life, Freedom.” Ayaz’s lawyer, Stefan Kuehl, has already announced his intention to appeal the “unacceptable and scandalous” verdict.
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