A senior figure of the PKK terrorist group was arrested in Hamburg, the German authorities announced on Tuesday.
The 54-year-old suspect was arrested on strong suspicion of membership and a leadership role in a foreign terrorist organization, according to a statement from Saxony's police department.
The suspect allegedly oversaw PKK activities in Hamburg and previously led operations in Saxony from early 2015 to July 2018, prosecutors said. He also coordinated activities in neighboring Poland and Czechia.
According to prosecutors, his duties included supervising subordinate PKK regional officials, organizing propaganda events and assemblies and conducting annual fundraising campaigns for the terrorist organization.
As part of the operation, authorities searched properties belonging to two other suspects and seized mobile phones, storage media, documents and large amounts of cash.
The PKK is classified as an ethno-nationalist and separatist terrorist organization by the EU's law enforcement agency Europol and has been banned in Germany since 1993. Despite the ban, the group remains active in the country with nearly 15,000 followers among the Kurdish immigrant population.
Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, has warned in recent reports that the PKK remains the largest foreign extremist group in the country. The agency says followers are capable of carrying out violent attacks if instructed by group leaders abroad.
The group convened a congress in May and announced its dissolution, following a February call by ringleader Abdullah Ocalan for an end to decades of violent attacks in response to the terror-free Türkiye initiative launched by an ally of the Turkish government that widely received public support. German authorities recently said they will continue monitoring the group's activities to determine whether it genuinely abandons terrorism while maintaining the ban on its operations in the country.
