A man wanted by Türkiye for his connection to the PKK terrorist group was released by an Italian court. The court in Sardinia has canceled the extradition warrant against D.A., his lawyer told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) Monday.
According to the lawyer, her client was arrested at the beginning of August while on holiday on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia and had been under house arrest since then. The basis for the arrest was a Turkish request to Interpol for a wanted man. Now the man, who is from Berlin, can leave for Germany again.
According to the lawyer, her client, who only has German citizenship, had been accused of supporting the PKK in northern Iraq in 2005 in IT matters. At that time, he had been working as a journalist in northern Iraq but had "no connections to the PKK," she claimed.
The PKK is the foreign terrorist group in Germany, according to the country's intelligence chief, who said at a news conference this summer that the group had 14,500 supporters. Türkiye has complained that despite the group's illegal status, European Union countries have long turned a blind eye to its activities on their soil, including media outlets, pro-terror demonstrations, and violence threatening Turkish diplomatic offices and Turkish nationals abroad.
"Extremists use crises to make connections with the middle classes and also share conspiracy myths, disinformation and propaganda," said Thomas Haldenwang, the head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) during a joint news conference with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in Berlin.
A member of the PKK terrorist group eliminated in a Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) operation in northern Iraq last week was revealed to be a German citizen, the Turkish Defense Ministry has recently announced.
Several reports from Turkish and international law enforcement agencies have also shown the group can finance its bloody terrorist campaign through drug trafficking in the European Union, raking in over $1.5 billion annually. It relies on its supporters and pro-PKK political groups across Europe. Although Türkiye has repeatedly called on its NATO ally Germany to take stronger action against the PKK, the terrorist group’s activities have been largely tolerated by authorities, and Berlin has been reluctant to do more to combat the group. Türkiye has frequently voiced concerns over European countries’ tolerance toward the PKK, however, the terrorist organization still maintains a strong presence in the region, being able to hold rallies and engage in recruitment activities.