Judgment in Turkey: imprisonment for Örs from Cologne – exit ban lifted

Gönül Örs from Cologne was sentenced to ten years and five months in prison in a terrorist trial in Istanbul. Nevertheless, she is allowed to leave Turkey. The process was just as contradictory as the judgment that has now been passed.

Convicted in Turkey for an alleged act in Germany and the possibility of leaving Turkey despite a long prison sentence: It is difficult to say what seems more absurd, the verdict or the whole trial against Gönül Örs from Cologne. After there was confusion about the sentence, it had to be checked in the written judgment that it was a total of ten years and five months.

Örs was unable to appear in the courtroom himself because of a suspected Covid-19 infection. After her lawyer told her the court’s decision on the phone, she struggled: “I’m really speechless. If I had ever done anything bad in my life, I would have said, ‘Okay, you deserve this sentence’. But today was simply shown: Injustice has triumphed. ”

Alleged PKK support

The 39-year-old was convicted of deprivation of liberty, propaganda for an armed terrorist organization and the hijacking of a passenger ship. All of this is said to have happened in Cologne in 2012. Örs and like-minded people are said to have hijacked a ship on the Rhine, hung a banner of the terrorist organization PKK and shouted slogans in support of the PKK. Örs denies that.

Germany, where the PKK is also banned, stopped the investigation. Apparently because of a mistake by the German authorities, Turkey came into play, says Örs’ lawyer Ayse Celik: “A German police officer who was working here in Turkey in the German embassy informed the Turkish authorities that Turkish terrorists were in Germany carried out a support campaign for the PKK. He also handed over a list of the names of those involved. We do not know why he did that. ”

Örs had no idea of ​​this when she traveled to Turkey in May 2019 to visit her mother in prison – a German-Kurdish singer with the stage name Hozan Cane. She was arrested during an election rally for the pro-Kurdish HDP. A short time later, the handcuffs also clicked on her daughter. First four months of pre-trial detention, then three and a half months of house arrest with electronic ankle cuffs, followed by a ban on leaving the country.

New burden on German-Turkish relationship

The spokesman for human rights of the SPD parliamentary group, Frank Schwabe, comments that she is now allowed to leave the country despite the high prison sentence, with the words: Otherwise the case would have placed another very heavy burden on German-Turkish relations. He assumed that the Turkish side was aware of this.

The ruling gives Örs the opportunity to leave Turkey and return to Germany. She cannot travel to Turkey again without running the risk of being arrested again. Lawyer Celik not only sees her client in danger: “Even if you make use of your freedom of expression in Germany, you can obviously be prosecuted for it in Turkey. The consequence of this judgment is that in the future everyone who at some point in the Turkey wants to travel, should also be careful what he says and does in Germany. ”

Örs will leave Turkey as soon as possible – preferably with the next plane, she says, depending on the result of her Covid-19 test. But that also means: She will not be in court if the trial against her mother continues in mid-July. With her, too, the question is whether she will be acquitted, allowed to leave the country or have to go to prison in Turkey.