By order of 29 August 2018 (file number (4) 151 AuslA 59/17 (40/18)), the Berlin Court of Appeal (Kammergericht) clarified that extradition to Turkey is inadmissible if there is a threat of prosecution for a political offence.
Political offences are (at least) those which are subject to state protection criminal law. They are an expression of opposition to the government, often against the background of foreign or domestic political disputes (see Vogel in Grützner/Pötz/Kreß/Gazeas, Internationaler Rechtshilfeverkehr in Strafsachen 3. Aufl., § 6 IRG marginal 38 mwN). The provision of Article 314 of the Turkish Penal Code (Law No. 5237) on which the conviction is based – insofar as extradition is requested – is found in the Fourth Part “Offences against the Nation and the State” of the Second Book of the Turkish Penal Code in the Fifth Section “Offences against the Constitutional Order and its Functioning” and thus belongs as a state security offence to the category of political offences (also OLG Karlsruhe, Beschluss vom 29. Juni 2017 – Ausl 301 AR 101/17 – [juris]). Also the concretely accused event – the participation in a propaganda event of the PKK in opposition to the Turkish government and in the resistance against the dissolution of the assembly – presents itself independently of the classification of the PKK as a terrorist organisation corresponding to German law as a political action of the persecuted person.
Neither is it a catalogue offence under Art. 1 EuTerrÜbk – not even in the version of Art. 1 ZP-EuTerrÜbk – nor is it a serious act of violence within the meaning of Art. 2 (1) EuTerrÜbk or a serious and public danger act directed against property within the meaning of Art. 2 (2) EuTerrÜbk. A serious offence within the meaning of Art. 2 (1) and (2) of the EuTerrÜbk is defined by Art. 2 of the EuTerrÜbk Act of 28 March 1978 (BGBl. II S. 321) only if, after weighing all circumstances, in particular the motives of the perpetrator as well as the nature of its execution and its indebted effects, the offence is not an appropriate means of achieving the desired objective, whereby as rule examples the causation of death or serious bodily injury, the endangerment of life or health of a large number of people or the commission of the offence in a cruel manner or by means dangerous to public safety are mentioned. This is evidently not the case with regard to the unintentional act of the
person persecuted, which is to be assumed on the basis of the silent grounds for the judgement.”
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