ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General on Thursday announced that it had filed an indictment against Yuksel Koc, a senior Kurdish politician and leader of a major organization of Kurds in exile, accusing him of participating in “propaganda activities” for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Europe.

In a statement released Thursday, the German Federal Public Prosecutor General said it had filed the indictment before the Security Senate of Hamburg’s Higher Regional Court on August 6.

The body said Koc is “strongly suspected” of having participated as a member of the PKK, which German authorities classify as a “foreign terrorist organization,” accusing him of being “particularly responsible for coordinating and conducting the organization’s propaganda activities in Europe, especially in the area of public relations.”

Koc previously served as co-chair of the European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (KCDK-E), the largest European-wide Kurdish umbrella organization.

The German statement described the KCDK-E as “the PKK's European organization.” The KCDK-E has repeatedly denied links to the PKK, but is evidently influenced by PKK ideology.

Koc was arrested in May 2025. An arrest warrant against him was suspended by the Federal Court of Justice in August of the same year and revoked at the request of the Federal Public Prosecutor General’s Office in May 2026, according to the statement.

The PKK announced its dissolution and decision to disarm in May 2025 following a call by its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, ending its four-decade armed campaign against the Turkish state and kickstarting an ongoing peace process.

Earlier in August, the Turkish parliament approved a bill outlining the legal framework for the disarmament and reintegration of former PKK fighters.