Kurdish activist’s legal team visit him in German prison

The lawyer of Kurdish activist Kenan Ayaz, currently in prison in Germany, visited him on September 11 in Hamburg, an announcement from his legal team said on Wednesday.

Ayaz was extradited to Germany last June on terrorism charges, which are considered controversial in Cyprus, as they could lead to his further extradition to Turkey.

The legal team said Ayaz’s lawyer Efstathios Efstathiou visited him in the Hamburg prison on Monday.

According to the announcement, Ayaz expressed his gratitude for the solidarity that he is continuing to receive from his legal team and the Cypriot people.

The team said the main topic of the meeting was the discussion of the German Federal Prosecutor’s indictment dated August 3. The indictment reportedly repeats the arrest warrant’s charges that Ayaz was allegedly a member of the PKK in 2018 and 2020.

The alleged evidence for these charges, the announcement said, is that high-ranking PKK members ordered him to organise demonstrations, convene meetings with other PKK members or that he oversaw the collection of donations. It is noted that the indictment does not attribute any kind of violence or other crime to him.

“The evidence that is supposed to prove the charges is, for example, that he allegedly asked another Kurd to visit a third Kurd, who happened to be in the hospital, or that he allegedly oversaw the collection of money because someone had told him on the phone that he had not received food, which is being interpreted as coded language,” the team added.

The team said they explained to Ayaz that his innocence has not been taken into account, and Ayaz in turn explained the harsh conditions he is under in the German prison, where he is still in solitary confinement and kept in his cell all day.