The government should make representations to the German authorities on the complaint made by Kenan Ayaz’s lawyer

Statement by AKEL MP Giorgos Koukoumas

28 December 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

The complaint by Kenan Ayaz’s lawyer about the theft of the computer used by the Kurdish activist’s defence team in the trial currently taking place in Germany is extremely serious.

We call on the government and the relevant Ministries to make representations to the German authorities to solve the case, as it also relates to the right to a fair trial.  The government has a moral and political responsibility to act on this issue, given that it is the Cypriot state that handed over Kenan Ayaz to the German authorities to be tried on charges of terrorism, at the request of essentially Turkey itself.

It is worth repeating that the case of Kenan Ayaz concerns every Cypriot democrat because, on the one hand, it is a political persecution of a man who is fighting for the rights and freedoms of the Kurds and, on the other hand, it reveals the complicity of EU governments with Turkey in the intensifying persecution of the Kurdish movement.

28.12.2023