A French court on Friday convicted 11 suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party of financing terrorism for a campaign to gain autonomy for ethnic marginalized groups in southeastern Turkey. The defendants are all Kurds of Turkish origin, speak little to no French and are suspected of being part of a network demanding a so-called Revolutionary Tax or “Campanha” for the Kurdish diaspora.
The PKK has been classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and Turkey. They have waged a decades-long armed struggle against Ankara for greater autonomy for the Kurdish minority.
Organized cells are believed to operate among a strong community of up to 150,000 Kurdish residents in France. As well as 100,000 in the Netherlands and a million-strong community in Germany. The Paris court found that “significant amounts” of funds had been obtained through threats including “exclusion from the community”.
Four of the accused are already detained while two failed to appear before the court.
The defendants denied belonging to the PKK, saying it had no presence in France. The sentences ranged from suspended three-year prison terms to five years behind bars with one year suspended. But the court did not ban the defendants from French territory. As is common in terrorism cases, most of them have refugee status in France.
The investigation began in 2020 when two Kurdish women aged 18 and 19 were reported missing in South-East France. It soon appeared that they had left for PKK training camps elsewhere in Europe. The inquiry revealed a network based around a Kurdish association in the southern city of Marseille, which prosecutors say was collecting a form of community tax, the “kampanya”, that funds the PKK.
Testimony and phone tapping revealed harassment and extorsion of diaspora members, investigators said, as the “tax collectors” set arbitrary contributions for individuals based on their estimated income.
Investigators believe around two million euros ($2.2 million) are collected in South-East France each year.
cc: Punch Ng
