The pending proceedings in Turkey against the former Cologne city councilor and member of the state parliament Hamide Akbayir (Die Linke) have been dropped, according to a news published in the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”.

The allegations that the 64-year-old was a member of a "terrorist organization" and would spread propaganda for it were not dropped. There was insufficient evidence to open a trial, "because the allegations were politically motivated and completely unfounded," Akbayir told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.

Hamide Akbayir traveled to Turkey in June 2021 to visit relatives. Almost three months later, she was arrested in early September in Elazığ on the basis of an arrest warrant from the Ankara public prosecutor's office and interrogated for several hours. The responsible judge had imposed an exit ban on the Kurd and ordered her to report to the police during the week. Complaints against this decision had been rejected for months. Akbayir was not allowed to return to Germany until January 2022, after paying bail.

Lots of support for well-known politician

Since Akbayir was a member of the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament from 2010 to 2012 and a member of the Cologne city council from 2014 to 2020, the Turkish judiciary's proceedings were particularly explosive. Around 5,000 signatories had demanded their release in an online petition and, in addition to numerous politicians, the management of the University of Cologne, several lecturers and the AStA for Akbayir, who is a chemical-technical assistant by profession and from 1980 until her retirement 2021, at the Institute of Biochemistry at the University of Cologne. The “Voice of Solidarity” association, which regularly holds vigils for political prisoners in Turkey and repeatedly addresses the Turkish hostage policy, is particularly committed.