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Viewing cable 09DUSSELDORF27, FORMER PKK LEADER IN GERMANY SENTENCED TO PRISON TERM

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09DUSSELDORF27 2009-08-03 16:21 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED Consulate Dusseldorf
VZCZCXRO3524
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSL RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDF #0027 2151621
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031621Z AUG 09
FM AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0220
INFO RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 0009
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEFHLC/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RUEHDF/AMCONSUL DUSSELDORF 0236
UNCLAS DUSSELDORF 000027 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR, S/CT, INR, INL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER KISL PGOV KCRM TU GM
SUBJECT: FORMER PKK LEADER IN GERMANY SENTENCED TO PRISON TERM 
 
REF: DUSSELDORF 0017 
 
1.       (U) Former Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) leader for 
Germany, Hueseyin Acar (aka Hueseyin Colak), was sentenced on 
July 31 to three years and nine months in prison on charges of 
leadership of a criminal organization and coercion by the Higher 
Regional Court in Duesseldorf.  The coercion charges referred to 
threatening the life of a young Kurdish woman if she did not 
terminate a pregnancy from a relationship with a PKK functionary 
in Germany.  The penalty corresponded to what the defense had 
requested, while the prosecution had asked for only three months 
longer.  The maximum sentence for both charges is five years in 
prison. 
 
 
 
2.        (U) The trial against Acar (48), who had been in 
pre-trial detention since his arrest in July 2008, opened on 
April 27, 2009 (reftel).   During the 13 days of court hearings, 
it was established (mostly through evidence gained through 
electronic surveillance of Acar's cell phones ) that he was in 
charge of the PKK's district organization in Southern Germany in 
spring 2007, and later on was the PKK's leader for Germany as a 
whole from June 2007 to April 2008.  In a two-and-a-half-hour 
statement after the pronouncement of the judgment, presiding 
judge Lutz Braunhoehler gave the reasons for the court's 
decision, praising the factual, non-confrontational atmosphere 
during the trial that made it possible to conclude it earlier 
than scheduled.  He pointed out that the PKK is a banned 
criminal organization in Germany (since 1993), systematically 
engaged in committing crimes, such as organizing illegal entries 
into Germany, forging of documents, tax evasion, coercion, 
bodily injury and deprivation of liberty in connection with 
collecting funds and forced donations. 
 
 
 
3.       (U) The court saw more mitigating than aggravating 
circumstances in arriving at what Braunhoehler called a 
"sufficient, but necessary sentence."  The only aggravating 
factor was the coercion of the Kurdish woman to terminate her 
pregnancy.  (She is still in a witness protection program to 
protect her from PKK threats.)  Among the mitigating 
circumstances Braunhoehler cited the fact that Acar had already 
spent more than 20 years in prison in Turkey, where he was 
sentenced to death for membership in the PKK in 1981 (later 
commuted to 40 years in prison) and most likely tortured and 
consequently traumatized.  In addition, Acar's partial 
confession helped accelerate the trial, and when he was arrested 
he was no longer in a PKK leadership function, Braunhoehler 
said. 
 
 
 
4.       (SBU) Acar has the right to appeal the sentence within 
one week before the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, but a 
well informed source at the Duesseldorf court told us that this 
would be highly unlikely, not only because the defense got what 
it requested, but especially because of the current PKK tactic 
of avoiding anything that would draw the public's attention in 
Germany to the criminal nature of the PKK. 
 
 
 
5.       (U) This message was coordinated with Embassy Berlin. 
 
GROSSMAN