Kurdish activist Mehmet Çakas is set to be deported to Turkey at the end of the month, despite pending court rulings. He is currently serving a prison sentence in Germany for PKK membership and would be in grave danger in Turkey.
Çakas, who is being held in Uelzen Prison, said in a statement through his family that he would like the Italian court to uphold its guarantee that he cannot be extradited to Turkey, which was given during the extradition process to Germany.
Çakas noted that he had applied for asylum in Italy before being handed over to Germany. He said this process was interrupted by his arrest and demanded that it be restarted and that he be granted residency rights.
Çakas appealed to Kurds in Italy, human rights defenders, and democratic circles and emphasized the importance of implementing the Italian court’s decision and creating public pressure to this end.
Cansu Özdemir, member of the Federal Parliament (Bundestag) for Die Linke, brought the issue to the government’s agenda.
In her parliamentary question, Cansu Özdemir referred to the 2023 decision of the Federal Ministry of Justice that the request for Çakas’ extradition should be rejected due to the threat of an aggravated life sentence in Turkey.
The Left Party MP asked whether the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) had taken this decision into account.
Cansu Özdemir responded, “How can it be explained that the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees did not impose a ban on deportation despite the clear assessment by the Federal Office of Justice regarding Mehmet Çakas?”
Source: ANF News
