The German Federal Prosecutor's Office has prepared an indictment against Turkish citizen Yuksel Koc on charges of membership in a terrorist organisation, the German state-run news service Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on August 28.

The prosecutor's office ran an investigation focused on the European network of the politico-militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The office said in a statement that the indictment against Koc was on August 6 submitted to the State Security Senate of the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg.

The statement added that Koc is accused of being a PKK member with reference to Sections "129a" and "129b" of the German criminal code, which regulate membership of a "foreign terrorist organisation." The Higher Regional Court of Hamburg will decide whether to accept the indictment.

‘Senior executive of PKK in Europe’

According to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, Koc served at the executive level of the PKK's European structure as co-chair of the European Kurdish Democratic Society Congress (KCDK-E) between June 2016 and July 2023.

The indictment also stated that Koc carried out instructions from the European leadership. He was specifically responsible for coordinating public relations and propaganda activities while acting as a speaker at various events within this scope, it said.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office also noted that Koc worked in close cooperation with different organisational units of the PKK and media structures close to the organisation.

‘PKK banned but active in Germany’

Koc was detained in May 2025. The arrest warrant against him was subsequently suspended in August last year and fully revoked last May.

The PKK has been banned in Germany since 1993. Despite this prohibition, in the 2025 report of the German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the organisation is evaluated as the largest and most organised foreign-origin extremist structure in Germany.

The report stated that despite the "peace process initiated with Turkey," the PKK has largely maintained its activities in Germany. It was obseved that numerous events attended by thousands of people were organised throughout 2025, while the group's mobilisation capacity in Germany remained high.

The report included information that, as in previous years, several PKK executives were sentenced to prison terms in 2025 for membership of a foreign terrorist organisation.