Indictment Filed Against a Suspected Member of the Foreign Terrorist Organisation ‘Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C)’

Year of issue 2024
Date 30.12.2024

On 2 December 2024, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment against

Turkish national Murat A.

before the State Security Chamber of the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court.

There are sufficient grounds to suspect the accused of participation as a member in the foreign terrorist organisation ‘Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C)’ (section 129a para. 1 no. 1, section 129b para. 1 sentences 1 and 2 of the German Criminal Code [StGB]).

In essence, the indictment sets out the following allegations:

DHKP-C’s declared goal is to eliminate the Turkish state by means of an ‘armed fight’ and to substitute it with a Marxist-Leninist regime under its control. Since its inception in 1994 up until the recent past, the organisation has committed numerous homicides and a large number of attacks with incendiary and explosive devices, repeatedly resorting to suicide attackers. DHKP-C has a foreign branch in Europe which it uses as ‘rear façade’ to finance its terrorist activities, recruit and train fighters, procure weapons and miscellaneous military equipment and as a safe haven for its members.

DHKP-C operates so-called cultural associations in Germany as part of its ‘rear façade’s’ local hubs, which serve as contact and meetings points for party officials and activists and are run by the organisation’s leadership. In order to give these associations a semblance of legality and to conceal their affiliation with DHKP-C, they are called ‘Anatolian Cultural Centres’, ‘Anatolian People’s Cultural Houses’ or other unassuming names. They have an independent outward appearance, but pursue DHKP-C’s goals in alignment with its dogma.

Between October 2016 and December 2017, Murat A. served as a senior DHKP-C member for the ‘rear façade’, predominantly in the ‘Ulm’ area, but also in other areas within the ‘Centre/South’ region. He gave orders to subordinate cadres and activists and oversaw their execution. In this regard, he made sure that the orders of the superordinate leadership of the ‘Centre/South’ region and of DHKP-C’s leadership in Germany were implemented. Murat A. was accountable to said bodies himself. Procuring funds, instructing members and activists as well as other propaganda-related activities were among his priorities. Furthermore, he was involved in procuring falsified IDs and weapons as well as finding couriers and conspiratorial accommodation for DHKP-C.

The accused is not in custody.