On occasion of the latest trial date in the so-called TKP/ML trial a manifestation was held in front of the Munich court in solidarity with those who stand accused in the trial. Using the slogan “Freedom for Dr. Banu Büyükavcı, Dr. Sinan Aydın, Sami Solmaz and all political prisoners” a broad platform of organizations mobilized to this manifestation, after three of the defendants in the trial, Banu, Sinan and Sami, had been rearrested on June 25.
In numbers protesters, activists and sympathizers gathered on Monday morning to take this opportunity of the trial date do demand in and outside of court the release of the imprisoned. In slogans and speeches the role of German imperialism was denounced, which – hand in hand with the Turkish government and on the basis of their “evidence” - hunts activists in Germany and Europe, targeting them with repression and harassing them.
The case of Banu, Sinan and Sami shows this well: First, absolutely over-exaggerated arrests and raids made by special forces armed to the teeth in order to stigmatize the activists as “terrorists” from the beginning. Then, a trial that drags on for years with out any verdict, while the defendants remain incarcerated, also for years (!). Then, their release because of the sheer discrepancy between years of jail on one hand, but no conviction on the other and due to public pressure. And then, the rearrest, yet again through special forces, during the trial and while in court.
As also the lawyer of Sami expressed during the manifestation, the recent rearrests are not due to the penal code, but politically motivated. It is obvious: To imprison activists for years without convicting them, to then release them for a couple of months so they can walk free, only to rearrest them later is nothing but state-organized terror to break the defendants.
