Author: Philip Wimmer

Published: 16 February 2021 Authors: Stefan Talmon and Philip Wimmer

The Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK (Partiya Karkerên Kurdistanê) is a Kurdish organization operating mainly in Turkey. It was founded in 1978 by a group of students around Abdullah Öcalan, dedicated to the creation of an independent, communist Kurdish State in south-eastern Turkey. With between 25 and 35 million Kurds living in the border regions of Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia, the Kurds make up the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East but have never succeeded in establishing their own nation State. In order to achieve its goals, the PKK launched an armed struggle against the Turkish Government in 1984, targeting Turkish military and security personnel but also civilians. Since the start of the conflict, over 40,000 people have been killed. (more…)

Published: 26 October 2020; Revised: 30 October 2020 Authors: Stefan Talmon and Philip Wimmer

On 4 May 2019, King Maha Vajiralongkorn formally ascended to the throne of Thailand. The King, however, lives in Germany for most of the year. He stays with his household in a hotel in the Bavarian Alps. In 2020, protests broke out against the Thai Government. The student-led protest movement also took issue with the King’s residence and extravagant lifestyle in Germany while the country was suffering from the severe consequences of the coronavirus pandemic and demanded reforms of the monarchy. With the protest movement in Thailand growing, questions were raised in the German Federal Parliament about the King engaging in domestic politics from German soil. (more…)

Published: 22 June 2020 Authors: Philip Wimmer and Stefan Talmon

In an order of 4 April 2019, the Federal Court of Justice decided on the pre-trial detention of Sarah O., a dual German-Algerian national who was accused, inter alia,  of membership of the foreign terrorist organisation “Islamic State” (IS) and war crimes. The Federal Public Prosecutor General alleged that the accused had left Germany in 2013 to join the IS in Syria. After her arrival in Syria, she married an IS fighter of German origin with whom she conducted guard and police duties for the IS. The organization rewarded her services with a monthly salary of about US$118. In January 2014, the accused moved into an apartment in the Syrian town of Jarabulus, which she furnished with loot acquired by IS fighters during the conquering of the area. The apartment served as a hub for newly arriving IS fighters. In June 2014, the accused moved into another furnished apartment in Jarabulus which had been administered by the IS after the rightful inhabitants were killed or evicted. (more…)

Published: 06 April 2020 Authors: Stefan Talmon and Philip Wimmer

On 26 July 2019, the Higher Regional Court in Munich sentenced Ahmad Zaheer D. to two years’ probation for, inter alia, the war crime of outrages upon human dignity. At the same time, the Court found that the beating of three enemy prisoners during interrogation did not amount to the war crime of inhuman treatment of protected persons under international humanitarian law. Handing down the relatively lenient sentence, the Court considered in favour of the accused that he had made a full confession, had cooperated with the police authorities, had no other criminal record, and had made every effort to integrate in Germany. It also took into account that the crimes occurred long ago and that the accused was just 21 years old at the time of the crimes. (more…)