A press conference on media freedom was held on 23 April in Brussels, in the wake of the raids on Stêrk TV and Medya Haber. Lawyer Jan Fermon, who obtained a Belgian Supreme Court ruling in 2020 deeming that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) could not be prosecuted as a terrorist organisation, addressed the crowd. The conference also heard from Jürgen Klute, Medya News contributor and former Member of the European Parliament, and Fien Schreurs of Everest Law.
Jürgen Klute argued it was “unacceptable” that the prosecutors and police carried out the raids, and that the European Union (EU) should be acting to protect minorities. He said: “I think we have to consider, and we have to take seriously that the European Union claims to be a defender of freedom of speech, freedom of thinking, as well as a defender of human rights and a defender of the rights of protection of minorities.”
🔴 Lawyers Jan Fermon and Fien Schreurs said yesterday’s raids on the offices of Kurdish TV stations in Brussels were “brutal” and pledged legal action.#KurdishTV | #SterkTV | #MedyaHaber | @j_klute
🔗 https://t.co/s9K3IKPuN2 pic.twitter.com/l0zTJCTVvW
— MedyaNews (@medyanews_) April 24, 2024
Jan Fermon argued that the Belgian authorities should have refused the request to carry out the raids, which reportedly came from the French judicial authorities. “The raid was justified by the [French] investigation into financing terrorism,” Fermon said, adding, “We have a very big problem there, because if indeed [the French request] is the motive of today’s raids, then the Belgian authorities should have refused.”
“The Supreme Court, the highest Belgian court – the Court of Cassation – decided that the Kurdish organisations… cannot be prosecuted and cannot be charged with terrorism because the anti-terrorism laws simply do not apply to the Kurds,” he argued.
Fermon explained that the PKK, and organisations allegedly linked to it, are not terrorists but parties to an armed civil conflict. Therefore, they are subject to the laws of war, not terrorism legislation.
Read the full transcript of the press conference below:
Fien Schreurs: Yesterday night police officers raided the offices of the Turkish and Kurdish television chains here. There were hundreds of police officers, and they seized several objects such as laptops from journalists, as well as invoices and several books. They didn’t hand over any inventory of the seized goods and they used excessive violence while entering the building, they broke doors and they broke things while entering. This of course has legal implications which my colleague will explain.
Jan Fermon: I stood here exactly on this spot exactly 20 years ago in 1996, when the building behind me of the Kurdish television was raided, [for] the first time by the Belgian police. [It was] a very brutal raid then, and a very brutal raid now – because again a lot of damage has been done to the infrastructure of the Kurdish television.
Jan Fermon: Twenty years ago already the accusation brought against the Kurdish television was financing of the activities of the Kurdistan Workers Party. At that time we didn’t have anti-terrorist laws, but later that accusation was then transformed [to] coooperation and financing of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). After a very long legal battle, the Belgian Supreme Court decided in 2020 that PKK could not be considered as a terrorist organisation. Anybody accused of helping PKK, financing PKK in any way could not be considered as a participant in terrorist activity.
Jan Fermon: And today, it seems that we are again at the starting point. Today again – apparently on the request of the French authorities… Or French judicial authorities, the raid was justified by the investigation into financing terrorism. And I think we have a very big problem there, because if indeed that is the motive of today’s raids, then the Belgian authorities should have have refused to do this at the request of the French authorities, arguing that our Supreme Court, the highest Belgian court – the Court of Cassation – decided that the Kurdish organisations… accused of being linked somehow to the Kurdistan Workers Party cannot be prosecuted and cannot be charged with terrorism because the anti-terrorism laws simply do not apply to the Kurds who are in the Kurdish organisations, who are part of an armed conflict – to whom the laws of war apply, but not the anti-terrorist laws.
It’s very strange that while our Supreme Court decided that anti-terrorism laws do not apply to the PKK and to the Kurdish organisations which are allegedly linked to the PKK, that today, under the pretext of a French investigation, the Belgian prosecutor apparently forgets about this decision of the Supreme Court and organises the raid as we have witnessed here this morning. So we will certainly discuss that, take this to court, take legal action to impose respect for the decision of the Belgian Supreme Court upon the Belgian prosecution and the Belgian police forces.
Jürgen Klute: I’m here for the second time as well. I was in such a situation around about 10 years ago when I was a member of the European Parliament and the speaker of the Kurdish friendship group. I was already here because at that time the police did the same as they did last night, and I think that Jan said it already, that is not acceptable.
Jürgen Klute: From my point of view, I’m not a lawyer, I’m a politician. I can comment only from a political point of view. From a political point of view I think we have to consider and we have to take seriously that the European Union claims to be a defender of freedom of speech, freedom of thinking. A defender of human rights and a defender of the rights of protection of minorities.
Jürgen Klute: The Kurds living in the European Union, living here in Belgium, but in other countries as well. In the Netherlands, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and so on. They’re here because they are victims of brutality, of the break in human rights in Turkey, in Syria, in Iran and in Iraq sometimes as well.
Jürgen Klute: And therefore I think the European Union has to take a view to this, what happened last night here as well. And the European institutions should… should follow this what happened… and remember that the [Belgian} government and the [Belgian] court – that they have to comply with the European principles of defending human rights, of defending freedom of speech and freedom of thinking, and I hope that they will comment on what happened here. In spite of the situation that we will have the election and the European Parliament now is busy with some other things. If they want to get trustable, then they will have to defend this action which happened here last night on the level of a member state of the European Union.
