A Dutch court has released journalist Serdar Karakoç from prison, pending a hearing on extradition to Germany on 24 July. Bail was set at 5,000 Euros, and Karakoç has to report weekly. He has had his passport confiscated and is banned from travelling.
If the deportation is successful, Karakoç is likely to face further extradition to Turkey to face terrorism charges. He is still subject to conditions restricting his freedom.
Recently, a group of Dutch politicians, artists and journalists joined the growing array of critics of the Dutch state’s imprisonment of the veteran Kurdish journalist.
Karakoç was the Izmir correspondent for the Leftist newspaper Özgür Gündem in the 1990s. In 1994, he survived a bomb attack on the Özgür Ülke newspaper. The Turkish state never arrested anyone for the attack, instead choosing to arrest the wounded journalists at the hospital.
Prior to his release, the authors of the open letter stated clearly that Turkey is behind Karakoç’s detention in the Netherlands.
“Although Germany’s request is cited as the reason, we know that the facts behind this situation are the result of Turkey’s pressure. We watch with shame as European politicians bow to Turkey’s demands,” they wrote.
“Serdar Karakoç is a colleague of ours who has worked as a journalist in Turkey for years, worked and managed Kurdish newspapers. The fact that he was in the newspaper building when the Özgür Ülke newspaper was bombed and that he survived this attack by chance is the most concrete proof of how he practiced his profession in difficult conditions. Since he had no opportunity to continue his journalistic activities in Turkey, he requested asylum in the Netherlands and his asylum was accepted,” the letter’s authors continued.
“Karakoç, who continues to work as a journalist in Europe, has been a tireless defender of his profession and freedom of expression. We are witnesses of Serdar Karakoç’s journalism.”
They concluded with a call to end the repression of Kurdish journalists. They wrote: “We would like to emphasise that the pressures, arrests and intimidation attempts against Kurdish journalists are unacceptable. Freedom of expression is one of the cornerstones of democratic societies and we have to fight together to protect this freedom.”
