A Kurdish man who has been living in Germany for over 30 years will be starting a nine-month prison sentence at the end of June for sharing photos of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan and guerrilla fighters on his social media account.
A German court sentenced Emin Çatıkkaş, a local shopkeeper in Heilbronn, to nine months in prison, a fine of 600 euros and a year of probation for his Facebook posts. Çatıkkaş had previously faced legal action and been subjected to a fine for participating in an protest.
Çatıkkaş’s brother lost his life in 1988 while fighting alongside the PKK, and he currently has a sister imprisoned in Turkey in connection with the guerrilla group. At the trial, the presiding judge indicated that he would take these factors into account and refrain from imposing a sentence longer than a year, so he would not have to go to jail. However, since Çatıkkaş had been subject to a previous probation order less than a year ago, he will be arrested to serve his sentence anyway.
Questioning the fairness of the German government’s treatment of Kurds, Çatıkkaş mentioned that in 1999, he had spent 12 days in prison for participating in a protest following Öcalan’s arrest. He said, “I was sentenced to seven months in prison. I was released after paying a 500 mark fine, with 10 years of probation.”
Furthermore, Çatıkkaş highlighted an unsettling experience in 2018 when his home was raided after an arson attack on a mosque in Heilbronn. He described the police searching his home and subjecting him and his family to physical aggression. His son and daughter were arrested without evidence, and it was later established that they had had no involvement in the incident.
Çatıkkaş stressed that a nine-month prison sentence for social media posts sets a worrisome precedent and raises concerns about the existence of freedom of thought in a country like Germany. He argued that the criminalisation of Kurds in this manner is both morally and ethically unjust and called on the German public not to remain silent in the face of it.
