Mehmet Çakas is facing imminent deportation to Turkey. The Kurdish activist was sentenced to two years and ten months in prison by the Higher Regional Court of Celle for membership of the PKK. He is currently serving his sentence in Uelzen Prison in Lower Saxony and is due to be released in October 2025.

Criminal proceedings are also pending against Çakas in Turkey on charges of PKK membership. “It has long been known that people accused of PKK membership in Turkey cannot expect a fair trial there, which is why, to our knowledge, no one convicted of PKK membership in Germany has ever been deported to Turkey in the past,” lawyer Dr. Björn Elberling told ANF.

The defense attorney further stated that Mehmet Çakas had applied for asylum, which was rejected by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). The Kurdish activist filed a lawsuit against the rejection through a lawyer and applied for urgent legal protection. The Lüneburg Administrative Court rejected the urgent application on June 11, 2025, without even addressing the substantive grounds for opposing deportation presented by the lawyer. Çakas’ lawyer has already lodged the admissible legal remedy, known as a hearing complaint, against this decision. A hearing on this complaint has been set for September 8, 2025.

However, there are increasing signs that the German authorities want to deport Mehmet Çakas to Turkey before this date, according to lawyer Elberling: "On July 3, the Celle Public Prosecutor's Office decided to waive further enforcement of the sentence in the event of Mehmet Çakas' deportation. In concrete terms, this means that Mehmet Çakas is facing imminent deportation to Turkey. He could be picked up from Uelzen Prison at any time and deported directly to Turkey."