Munich court acquits activist in PYD case

Munich Administrative Court acquitted an activist who had been on trial for carrying a PYD flag during a demonstration to protest the invasion of Afrin.

The criminalization policies of the police and prosecutors against Kurdish and German activists for photographs of Kurdish People’s Leader Abdullah Ocalan and PYD/YPG/YPJ flags are starting to be reversed by the courts.

The Munich Administrative Court acquitted an activist who had been on trial for carrying a PYD flag in a march held in Munich on March 11, 2018 protesting the invasion of Afrin by the Turkish army and their allied gangs.

Aid organization Rote Hilfe announced Judge Martin Meixner’s ruling for acquittal in a written statement and said: “It is a positive result for the rule of law that the Munich prosecutor’s investigations return from the courts.” The prosecutor had demanded a large fine for the Munich activist whose identity is not made public.

Filmmaker Uli Bez was also recently investigated for posting a YPJ flag on her Facebook account, and the Munich Administrative Court acquitted her too.

The court had stated in Bez’s ruling that posting a YPJ flag was not proven to have connection to the banned organization PKK.