The presiding judge, Michael Höhne, took a good hour and a half to draw as balanced a picture as possible of the decades-long conflict between the Kurdish people and the Turkish rulers, of the autonomy efforts of the “largest people without a state of their own”, but in the end he found for very clear words to the perpetually grinning defendant Mirza B.: The 36-year-old Kurd had collected donations as regional manager for Bavaria for the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Germany and thus supported an organization “that specifically kills security forces, but also civilians”. advance. The 7th Criminal Division at the Higher Regional Court in Munich sentenced Mirza B. to three years in prison for membership in a terrorist organization abroad.
Since May of this year, the State Security Senate at the Higher Regional Court has been hearing against Kurdish-born Mirza B. He remained silent on the charges against him on all days of the hearing. Only when it came to his personal circumstances and in his last word did B. express himself in detail and, according to the court, reveal his identification with the goals and actions of the PKK, “and his radicalization”.
Germany should be ashamed, the court quoted his words, it was a scandal that he, who was fighting for the basic rights of the Kurds, was being imprisoned. Chairman Höhne countered that the attacks by the PKK and its offshoots “are not approved by any legal system.” Anyone who lives here has to accept the value system, namely that the protection of life has the highest priority. Mirza B. is only about “simple acts of revenge: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”.
The defendant showed no sense of wrongdoing
Mirza B. was born in a small mountain village in southeastern Turkey. When he was six years old, his family was expelled by Turkish security forces. He reported that his father and sister were temporarily arrested, and his older brother was killed by security forces. In 2016, B. fled to France and joined the Kurdish freedom movement.
According to the court, he was appointed head of the PKK Bavaria in 2020 and was responsible for Munich, Nuremberg and Ulm. Mirza B. coordinated operations and reported to the European leadership of the PKK. Sometimes he conspiratorially uses various aliases for his actions. And he was responsible for the annual fundraising campaign for Bavaria. In Europe alone, according to the Senate, 20 to 25 million euros are collected annually to finance the armed struggle.
According to Michael Höhne in his verdict, “the PKK’s terrorist orientation has not changed to date.” They have not given up the targeted killing of people, including civilians, but have intensified it. Mirza B. indicated “no sense of wrongdoing”. Höhne credited the accused with the fact that “the entire Kurdish misery is depicted in his family history.”
The Senate considers the fact that he is now supporting the PKK’s guerrilla actions from Germany and viewing his persecution as a scandal to be “intolerable, improper and unfounded”. Since there is also a risk of future crimes, B. will be placed under supervision. This means that after his release he will be assigned a probation officer and will be guided and monitored due to his poor social prognosis.