Executions halted: Path to retrial for 700 fugitive PKK convicts

A significant legal process has begun following the Constitutional Court's annulment of the 6th paragraph of Article 220 of the Turkish Penal Code. This annulled article provided for the punishment of those who committed crimes on behalf of a terrorist organization without being members of the organization. Between 2006 and 2016, during a period when FETÖ-affiliated judges and prosecutors were influential, approximately 4,500 people were sentenced to prison by being classified as members of a terrorist organization based on this article.

DECISION WAS PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE

The Constitutional Court's annulment decision was announced in the Official Gazette on January 9, 2025, and the decision entered into force six months later.

According to the report by Özgür Cebe from Sözcü, it has been determined that there are 4,500 files within this scope across Turkey, primarily in provinces such as Diyarbakır, Siirt, Mardin, Şırnak, Hakkâri, Van, Bitlis, Muş, Şanlıurfa, Bingöl, Tunceli, Malatya, and Erzurum. It has been identified that the sentences of 700 PKK terrorist organization convicts have been suspended so far.

COURTS WITHDREW CONVICTION DECISIONS

The High Criminal Courts sent letters to the execution judgeships and withdrew the previous conviction decisions regarding these convicts. Following the suspension of the execution for the 700 individuals who had arrest warrants, the courts decided to reopen the trials ex officio. Each file was registered with a new case number; preliminary proceedings were arranged, and hearings were scheduled between December 2025 and January 2026. Thus, these individuals, whose arrest warrants were lifted, will be retried and may be acquitted individually in accordance with the regulation that the Constitutional Court has decriminalized.

It was stated that some high criminal courts had also issued suspension of execution decisions regarding other crimes for which the convicts were sentenced but which the Constitutional Court did not touch — such as opposition to the Law on Meetings and Demonstrations No. 2911, resisting to prevent the performance of duty, damaging public property, making propaganda for a terrorist organization, and unauthorized manufacturing of explosive materials — but that they corrected and withdrew these decisions with additional rulings.

It was noted that while the courts were suspending the sentences of numerous PKK terrorist organization convicts, they included the following assessment:

“A legal necessity has arisen for the re-evaluation of the legal status of the convicts. In this context, in order to prevent irreparable damages in the future, it has been decided to suspend the execution and reopen the trial.”

ACTIONS IN WHICH THE CONVICTS PARTICIPATED

Among the actions in which these individuals, whose trials will be reopened, were involved in the past, many events organized at the call of the PKK terrorist organization stand out:

Organizing mass marches to areas where the Turkish Armed Forces were conducting operations under the name of "human shields",

Holding sit-in protests in front of police stations at the call of terrorist organization leaders and protesting the isolation imposed on Öcalan with street demonstrations,

Forcing shopkeepers to close their shutters on the day Öcalan was captured and on his birthdays,

Engaging in clashes with security forces and damaging public property through civil disobedience actions organized under names such as the "People's Initiative",

Attempting to hinder the operations of security forces by supporting the trench and barricade incidents,

Personally participating in the Kobani incidents on October 6-8, 2014, in which 53 people lost their lives,

Being part of groups that protested the appointment of trustees to municipalities and clashed with the police for this reason.

News Source: 12punto