FINING AGAINST SOLIDARITY WITH THE TERRORIST ORGANIZATIN KADEK

Heavy fine punishment application has begun in Germany against the people giving support to the KADEK-PKK terrorist organization, characterized as "the most dangerous terrorist organization" and whose activities have been banned in that country.

It has been learnt from a report in 'Frankfurter Rundshau' daily on 29 March 2003 that the Federal Appeal Court of Germany ratified a fine punishment by a court against the advocator of the banned KADEK-PKK terrorist organization.

According to a judgment of the Federal Appeal Court, taken on a sample case on 28 March 2003, all the supporters of the solidarity campaign of the banned KADEK-PKK shall be fined.

The German judges ratified a 600 Euro (wage for 60 days) fine against a Kurdish woman (29) for her violation of the Act on Associations. The defendant Kurdish woman had joined to the "identity declaration" campaign of the terrorist organization KADEK-PKK, with other 273 demonstrators, in front of Düsseldorf State Assembly.

In frame of this sample judgment of the German Court, it was published that nearly 40 thousand people, who signed a declaration titled "I am a PKK, too", shall be punished by a 600 Euro fine with the claim of "being solidarity with a terrorist organization".

The German Supreme Court, which ratified the judgment of Düsseldorf State Court, stressed those 40 thousand people, who had joined the acts in this context, shall be condemned one by one. The Court decided that the defendants "had joined the acts of the banned PKK-KADEK, had called for disobedience to the ban, and had violated the Act on Associations with that call."

On 16 January 2003, also Hamburg State Court sentenced five sympathizers of the organization to imprisonment, who were established as joined to the "identity declaration" campaign of the terrorist organization. In addition, Hamburg State Court accepted the imprisonment and heavy fine punishment demand of the public prosecutor office for Hasan Karagoz, Yavuz Persoglu, Sevda Ozaltun and Mursel Karasu, who were established as joined to the acts of the terrorist organization to make null the ban and have been in prison since July 2001.

Meanwhile, the Interior Minister of Bavaria State, Gunther Beckstein, who made public the 'Activity Report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, 2002' at a press conference on 24 March 2003 stressed that the banned PKK-KADEK was still a potential risk to the interior security of Germany, and made it clear that the ban on the terrorist organization KADEK would be sustained by saying "Half of the violent acts related with the foreign groups active in Germany were perpetrated by the terrorist organization KADEK-PKK. The terrorist organization KADEK-PKK is the most dangerous one to German public order."

German Interior Minister, Otto Schily, by announcing in a press conference on 3 March 2003 that, "KADEK is also banned in Germany for being a continuation of the PKK. However, this banning is not applied in all the European countries," emphasized the necessity to include the KADEK in the terrorist organizations list of the European Union.

International community, decisive on the fight against terrorism, hopes this approach of the Federal Appeal Court of Germany to be a sample to all the countries and, awaits the EU to include KADEK, trying to intensify violence, in the list of the terrorist organizations.