COPENHAGEN, Denmark – A Danish prosecutor is appealing a court’s decision to clear 10 Danish Kurds accused of channeling almost $24 million to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a terrorist organization by the European Union and the US.
"We appeal the criminal case,” Lise-Lotte Nilas, who prosecuted the case, told Rudaw. "We will let the High Court look into the case,” she said.
“After reading the verdict we disagree with the district court’s evaluation of the evidence and believe that there is sufficient evidence against the 10 men."
The 10 were arrested in September 2012 for allegedly raising 140 million Danish Krone (around $23.7 million) on behalf of the PKK. The defendants were charged under Danish anti-terror laws for supporting a terrorist organization.
Prosecutors had demanded sentences of four years, but all 10 men were cleared in October at the end of a jury trial. The court ruled that the men could not be found guilty of funding the PKK, as they collected money for Roj-TV before the channel was found guilty of supporting PKK in January 2012. It said the defendants did not “know the relationship between Roj-TV and PKK,”
“Our view is that there is proof that the accused men must have realized that the raised money went to the PKK,” said Nilas.
The case is the largest terrorism funding case in Denmark.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Western countries, but recent events have raised the profile of the PKK: In the Kurdish-Syrian city of Kobane, the PKK-affiliated People’s Protection Units (YPG) are backed by some Western weapons and US-led air strikes in the war against the Islamic State.
Given the timing, Thorkild Hoyer, one of the defense attorneys, found the decision to appeal “incomprehensible.” He noted that ”Denmark itself is part of the anti-Islamic State coalition contributing militarily in Iraq, “where we support the Kurds, indirectly also PKK.”
"On the one hand they want 10 Kurdish men to be prosecuted with the claim of supporting the PKK, while we ourselves support the Kurdish forces in Iraq. It seems a little weird," Hoyer told Rudaw.
The defense attorney also believed the prosecutor's decision to appeal the acquittal "is a waste of taxpayers' money".
"It surprises me that the prosecutor does not accept the very clear decision of the district court to clear the men."
He denied also that the defendants should have known of the relationship between the PKK and Roj-TV and referred to The Danish National TV and Radio board, which cleared Roj-TV four times, stating that the programming that was turned over for inspection “did not incite hate” and therefore the station could not lose its licence on that ground.
"Therefore, the 10 men had good reason to believe that they acted completely legally," Hoyer said.
Turkey, which for 30 years fought the PKK, required an official explanation from Denmark after the acquittal of the 10 accused.
"Fighting the financing of terrorism is an international obligation for Denmark and for all other countries," a statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry wrote. "Therefore, Turkey has asked the Danish authorities for an explanation of the action taken against the financing of terrorism - including in this case."
