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DOWN WITH PARAGRAPH 129,129A&B STGB!
FREEDOM FOR ALL ANTIFASCIST AND REVOLUTIONARY PRISONERS!
On May 16th last year, the anti-fascists Özgül Emre, Serkan Küpeli and Ihsan Cibelik, member of the music band Grup Yorum, were arrested. This year, anti-fascist Hasan Unutan, father of three, was also arrested.
All four were arrested on the basis of paragraph 129b of the German Penal Code (StGB) and have since been in pre-trial detention in various prisons in Germany, awaiting their trial for almost a year now, which they do not even know what it will involve because no indictment has been sent to date.
Since there are many injustices around the arrests and the trial, which we as the Committee “Away with Paragraph 129” have drawn attention to in various ways, we are taking our fight against these injustices to a new level. That is why Eda Deniz Haydaroglu is on an indefinite hunger strike. With the demands of the hunger strike, we want to draw attention to these injustices and call on the authorities to heed these demands.
Our demands are:
-All 4 detainee were imprisoned on the basis of §§ 129 a and b StGB. For several years, people who actively oppose the fascist rule in Turkey, have been persecuted and criminalized through diplomatic channels in Germany.
Turkey regularly transmits lists with regime critics to Germany and as a result of these lists, Germany prosecutes opposition activists. Also the 4 now imprisoned anti-fascists were on these lists. To persecute opposition activists, FRG (Federal Republic of Germany) uses the paragraph 129b, which has a highly questionable background. It is a relic of the Nazi era and a direct successor to the National Socialist treason law. The Allies had banned the law, but it was reinstated in the course of the 1st Criminal Law Amendment Act to “prevent Nazis from gaining strength.” However, it is certain that these paragraphs mainly persecute and imprison opposition activists from Turkey.
-The 4 imprisoned anti-fascists each have valid addresses in Germany. They were also all arrested in their respective homes. Serkan Küpeli is married, a student in University of Hamburg and was arrested 15 days after the birth of his first child.
Hasan Unutan is also married, owns an advertising company in Mannheim, Germany and is the father of 3 children.
All of them are part of public life, their political activities are announced days in advance on the internet, they have regular medical and official appointments that they attend, etc. The risk of flight claimed by the prosecution is therefore vague and no reason to keep these people in detention for almost a year in unspecified conditions. Pre-trial preventive detention is ultima ratio and may only be used if no milder means are suitable. We demand that the pre-trial preventive detention be lifted for the reasons stated and that the trial be continued at large.
-The Attorney General Peter Frank signed the arrest warrants against the imprisoned anti-fascists. A short time later, he flew to Turkey by invitation and met, among others, with the Minister of Justice and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and was honored there. We demand an explanation about what Peter Frank was doing in Turkey, what he discussed with Erdogan and other members of the cabinet of Republic of Turkey and what he was honored for in Turkey? We would like to know if Peter Frank was honored for the persecution of opposition figures in Germany.
-The persecution of anti-fascists of Turkish origin in Germany is based on reports from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. This scandal-ridden authority, which was deeply involved in the NSU crimes and is repeatedly conspicuous by scandals in the form of national socialist sentiments, has no legitimacy in the persecution of anti-fascists. These reports from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution serve as preliminary criminalization, are treated as facts by authorities and any repression is justified with these reports. This approach is an attack on the rule of law, since in a constitutional state not secret services, but courts decide who has committed a crime. We demand that the presumption of innocence be brought back into focus and that reports from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution not be used as facts.
-For some time now, digital files have been used as evidence in political proceedings in Germany.
This approach creates scandalous legal rulings. Digital files are exposed in their basic nature to any form of modification, rewriting, deletion, etc. With the current state of technology, it is almost impossible to rule out the possibility that digital files are reputable and credible, or whether they have not been altered after the fact. In Germany, however, the overall assessment is sufficient. This means that the judge decides whether or not to accept a piece of evidence. This is also an attack on our rights, because there is no longer any legal certainty here. We are deprived of the possibility to legally defend ourselves in case of doubt against modified or newly written digital files, because everything is at the discretion of a judge here. We therefore demand that digital files not be cited as evidence in political proceedings, since political interests also always harbor the danger of abuse and there is no way to effectively eliminate this danger. Support us in our demands.
Let us fight together for justice!
Let us fight together for our democratic rights and freedoms!
We call on all people in Germany to support Eda Haydaroglu in her fight for justice!
for justice! The demands of the hunger strike:
1- The pre-trial preventive detention against the revolutionary and anti-fascist prisoners Özgül Emre, Ihsan Cibelik, Serkan Küpeli and Hasan Unutan must be lifted.
2- Facebook posts and digital files must not be used as evidence.
3- The reports of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution are not legitimate and must not be used as evidence !
4- Attorney General Peter Frank must explain what he discussed with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and what he was honored for in Turkey.
5- The demands of Alfredo Cospito should be fulfilled!
6- The fascist §129 a and b must be removed from the law.
7- All antifascist and revolutionary prisoners must be released immediately.
WE DEMAND JUSTICE!