Dutch court to review case of Kurds detained at alleged rebel training camp
by ANTHONY DEUTSCH; Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
February 7, 2005 Monday
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — A Dutch court was on Tuesday to review the
cases of 16 Kurds detained last year in the Dutch countryside allegedly
training to carry out terrorist attacks in Turkey and Armenia.
The 16 defendants arrested in a November sweep were to be charged
under tough new anti-terrorism laws that went into effect a few months
before they were detained. Prosecutors say all are members of a rebel
group known as the Kurdish Workers’ Party, or PKK. They are accused
of membership in a terrorist organization and passport forgery,
among other charges.
Charges against 22 others were dropped and they have been handed
over to immigration authorities, prosecution spokeswoman Desiree
Leppens said.
The November raid was the largest single crackdown to date on suspected
PKK members in the European Union. Members of the PKK met openly in
the Netherlands throughout the 1990s, but the group was banned in
Europe last year.
More than 200 police were involved in the operation near the town of
Boxtel in the southern Brabant province.
Police seized night vision goggles, packages of clothing intended to
be sent abroad, instructional materials, passports and identity cards,
prosecutors said.
Prosecutors say “more than 20 people were being trained for armed
conflict … including terrorist attacks” and that they were being
prepped in special war tactics. Others allegedly arranged money
transfers, passports and passed along information to foreign members.
Prosecutors were expected to request more time to prepare their case
at Tuesday’s pretrial hearing.
Fighting between Turkish troops and autonomy-seeking Kurds has killed
some 37,000 people since rebels took up arms in 1984. The rebels
are fighting to carve out an independent state in the mountainous
southeast region of Turkey.
Turkey has long demanded that European Union nations act against
the rebel group, whose sympathizers run a satellite TV station in
Denmark and allegedly collect hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
in major European cities.
In January, a Dutch court blocked the extradition of Kurdish rebel
leader Nuriye Kesbir to Turkey, saying it feared she could be tortured
if sent to a Turkish prison. Kesbir was accused of helping plan a
series of bombings for the PKK in the 1990s.