The Kurdish woman Zübeyde Akmese is being held in German custody on suspicion of supporting terrorism due to risk of absconding – even though the ailing 71-year-old has lived in Munich with her children and grandchildren for 40 years and is strongly socially connected there.
Zübeyde Akmese is 71 years old, a mother, a grandmother – and has been in pre-trial detention since 17 March 2026. On that Tuesday, the well-known Kurdish activist was arrested in her Munich flat. The police searched the premises for four and a half hours before Akmese was brought before the Higher Regional Court. An investigating judge ordered pre-trial detention the same day. Since then, she has been held – despite multiple medical diagnoses – in Munich-Stadelheim prison.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating Akmese on suspicion of membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – based on Section 129b of the Criminal Code, which criminalises “membership activity for a foreign terrorist organisation”. Her lawyer states that the allegations relate to activities that are in themselves legal: organising demonstrations and cultural events, as well as interpreting for refugees and migrants in meetings with lawyers. He also argues that the PKK dissolved itself in 2025, meaning there can no longer be any activity on behalf of the organisation.
The Democratic Society Centre of Kurds in Munich also sharply condemned the arrest. “We know very well that every movement and every commitment to the rights of the Kurdish people is to be criminalised by certain circles and portrayed as a criminal offence,” a spokesperson said.
Akmese has lived in Munich for almost 40 years. As an Alevi Kurd in Turkey, she had been imprisoned, tortured and abused because of her background and therefore fled to the Federal Republic. In Munich, she has been active for decades in support of women’s rights, minorities and social cohesion, including at the Democratic Society Centre of Kurds.
The activist’s state of health is impaired – she is classified as care level 3 due to diabetes, high blood pressure, depression and other diagnoses. For this reason, supporters of Akmese have now launched a petition calling for her release from pre-trial detention. The signatories explicitly state their support for her “good character, her integrity and her rootedness in Germany”.
The prosecution cites risk of absconding as the reason for detention. Family and friends consider this incomprehensible. “The pre-trial detention is disproportionate and absurd, and the alleged risk of absconding does not correspond to her lived reality,” one of Akmese’s daughters explained.
The arrest warrant also states that the accused has “hardly any social contacts outside the PKK activist scene”. In fact, she is deeply rooted in the city through her extended family, nieces and nephews. Politically, her mother is also diverse: “Where her heart lies, that’s where she goes,” said the daughter, who wished to remain anonymous, speaking to “nd”. The fact that the prosecution presents this differently “angers me the most”.
This is not the first time Akmese has come into conflict with German authorities. In 2021, she was fined €2700 for displaying portraits of Kurdish representative Abdullah Öcalan at demonstrations against the Munich Security Conference.
Akmese had already experienced imprisonment in Turkey. In Stadelheim prison, she presents herself as defiant, her daughter says. “But the sparkle in her eyes was gone, and her body spoke a different language.”
Published in German in „nd“.
Image: Zübeyde Akmese, as an Alevi Kurd in Turkey, had been imprisoned, tortured and abused because of her background and therefore fled to the Federal Republic (ANF Deutsch).
