Mehmet Çakas is to be deported to Turkey before serving his German prison sentence – even though criminal proceedings are ongoing against him there. This would be a precedent case.
The Kurdish activist Mehmet Çakas is to be deported to Turkey on August 28 from Germany correctional facility. According to his defense attorney Björn Elberling, this was officially communicated to the 45-year-old by the prison administration in Uelzen on Monday.
Çakas was sentenced a year ago by the Higher Regional Court of Celle to two years and ten months in prison for “membership in a foreign terrorist organization.” The case concerned the PKK, and he would have regularly completed his sentence in October 2025.
According to his lawyer’s assessment, the threatened transfer is a legal novelty: “As far as we know, no one who was convicted in Germany for PKK membership has been subsequently deported to Turkey – because no fair trial can be expected there,” Elberling explained.
In Turkey, separate criminal proceedings are running parallel against Çakas. Çakas had also filed an asylum application in Germany. This was rejected by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. The activist had filed a lawsuit against this, including an emergency application. However, the Administrative Court of Lüneburg surprisingly rejected this six weeks ago without addressing the protection grounds presented.
Çakas’ lawyer filed a procedural objection, which is to be heard on September 8 – thus after the planned deportation date. The defense sees the deportation as an acute threat to Çakas’ life and freedom. Both human rights organizations and European courts regularly document the systematic persecution and torture of political prisoners in Turkey.
“That the authorities in Lower Saxony continue to pursue the deportation knowing what persecution threatens our client there leaves me speechless. I have already experienced several proceedings against Kurdish activists, but such a process is unique even for me,” Elberling told “nd.”
Cansu Özdemir, Bundestag member of the Left Party, also showed dismay: “Human rights also apply to Kurds. A deportation under these circumstances would be a political scandal.” In a statement, the Çakas family warned of a precedent case: “If Mehmet is deported, this could be the beginning of systematic extraditions of Kurdish activists to Turkey.”
At the end of February 2025, imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan had called for ending the armed struggle. The organization declared a ceasefire and began disarmament in July. The federal government nevertheless maintains the classification of the PKK as a terrorist organization – against this background, the planned deportation of Çakas is a slap in the face of ongoing peace efforts. The Cologne legal aid fund Azadî therefore calls for public mobilization against it.
Published in German in ‘nd’.
Image: ANF.
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