LONDON (Reuters) – Six Kurds went on trial in Britain on Friday, accused of being members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group banned in their native Turkey, Britain and elsewhere.
Prosecutors said the defendants, aged between 24 and 63, belonged to or claimed to belong to the PKK, which was listed as a terrorist organization in Britain in 2001.
They were charged in December 2024, a month after police raided a Kurdish community center in north London, and some of the defendants are also accused of arranging or delivering on pro-PKK meetings in 2023 and 2024.
The PKK announced last year it would disarm and disband and symbolically burn weapons, but it remains widely banned, including in the European Union and the United States.
Ercan Akbal (57), Ali Boyraz (63), Agit Karatas (24), Berfin Kerban (32), Turkan Ozcan (60) and Mazlum Sayak (28) have all pleaded not guilty to membership in a banned organization.
Akbar also denies two counts of arranging meetings in support of the PKK and two counts of speaking at meetings to encourage support for the PKK.
Ozkan and Sayak deny two counts of arranging a meeting in support of the PKK, and Boylas and Karatas deny one count of speaking at a meeting to encourage support for the PKK.
The PKK has fought for four decades for independence or autonomy for the predominantly Kurdish region of southeastern Türkiye.
“There is nothing wrong with Kurds wanting self-determination or people moving for self-determination… but it was the tactics used by the PKK that led to their ban,” Larkin said.
The trial is expected to take up to three months.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
