A Kurdish man named Orhan Ergin, who is politically persecuted in Turkey, has been arrested in Prague as an alleged member of the PKK and YPG. Lawyer Tomáš Sokol sees no legal basis for his client's arrest.
A Kurdish man called Orhan Ergin was arrested in Prague on 8 December. Ergin applied for political asylum in the Czech Republic with his children in 2011 and runs a restaurant there.
Ergin has been held in custody for failing to comply with a local court's deportation order. After the expulsion sentence was overturned by the Constitutional Court, he was released on 8 December but arrested again as he left the court. A secret investigation that has been running since 2014 was used as a reason for the new arrest.
The office of Orhan Ergin's defense lawyer, former Interior Minister Tomáš Sokol, has issued an arrest warrant for his client in Turkey for previous posts on digital networks. The court then overturned the deportation order.
Ergin is now being accused of membership of the PKK and the YPG because he has taken part in protests against Turkey's attacks on northern and eastern Syria organized by Czech groups and had contact with leaders from Rojava officially invited to the Czech Republic.
The law firm has objected to the arrest of Orhan Ergin, saying the allegations against their client have no legal basis. The police allegations are based on secret witness statements and are speculative, the law firm assumes that they won’t be considered enough by the court.
