Eleven members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were sentenced on Friday April 14 by the Paris Criminal Court, in particular for “extortion” and “terrorist financing”, to three-year suspended sentences of four years. These Kurds from Turkey were tried for having been part of a “network” responsible for collecting the “kampanya”, the revolutionary tax to finance the PKK, from the diaspora in the south-east of France.
Engaged since 1984 in the armed struggle against the Turkish state, the PKK is considered a terrorist group by Ankara, but also, since 2002, by the European Union. And it is precisely the terrorist nature of this organization, and therefore of the charges against the accused, which were at the heart of the debates.
The terrorist qualification was unanimously contested by the defense lawyers, who denounced, like Me Raphael Kempf, the ” schizophrenia of France in its relations with the Kurds.
“ France supports on the ground and receives in Paris members of the YPG, considered to be the Syrian branch of the PKK, and on the other hand, France, through its national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office, considers that they are terrorists, he points out. There is indeed something of the order of ambivalence, not to say hypocrisy of the French State, in treating people differently who nevertheless are groups that fought against Daesh and who made against Daesh, in my opinion, much more than the DGSI and the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office combined. »
But in its decision, the court for its part considered that “ whether members of the PKK (…) fought jihadist groups “, the PKK ” cannot be defined solely by this action ” and his ” terrorist character is proven, citing “ attacks in Türkiye and violent actions ” In France.
Proof of the complexity of the question, the court however followed the prosecution which did not request a ban from the territory, however usual in matters of terrorism, ” under refugee status ” of most of the defendants, confronted with ” a proven danger in Türkiye according to the prosecutor.
A ” hypocrisy ” moreover, ” since the OFRA withdraws refugee status from people convicted of terrorism “, criticizes Me Kempf, who fears to see his client returned to Turkey where he awaits an eight-year sentence for terrorism.
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