Three Kurdish activists accused of being members of banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will be retried after a jury was unable to reach a verdict in their case.
Turkan Ozcan, Ali Boyraz and Ercan Akbal are accused of belonging to the banned terrorist group.
The Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to retry the case, announced on Friday, came after three other defendants were cleared of membership charges.
Berfin Kerban, Agit Karatas and Mazlum Sayak were found not guilty of PKK membership in a four-month long terror trial at the Old Bailey. The trial was the culmination of a major police investigation involving over 800 officers—yet not a single guilty verdict was returned.
Prosecutors had brought twelve charges against the Kurdish activists, accusing all six of PKK membership. They also charged the group with a range of lesser offenses around organising and speaking at events and protests run through the Kurdish Community Centre in north London. That included a terrorism charge for one man speaking at an event to commemorate his relative who was killed in combat with Turkey—and another for organising an evening of traditional Kurdish dancing.
On 13 May, the jury reached a unanimous not-guilty verdict on four of the charges, including three of the membership charges, each carrying a potential 14-year jail sentence.
But the jury was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining eight counts despite deliberating for over a week. With a retrial now ordered, the remaining defendants could wait years before a final verdict is reached.
Karatas, a master’s student at the London School of Economics, spoke to Declassified after being cleared of PKK membership.
“The breadth of the [UK]’s law on proscribed organisations creates ‘suspect communities’ who are subjected to increased surveillance and possible prosecution,” he said.
“This case has demonstrated how Kurdish social, cultural and political activities are [targeted] by the law.” RELATED ‘Incirlik is yours’: How Turkey’s Erdoğan handed major military base... Though originally fighting for a socialist Kurdish state, the PKK has since evolved to advocate for a unique model of direct democracy, women’s autonomy and multi-ethnic political federation known as “democratic confederalism”. Tony Blair’s Labour government outlawed the PKK in 2001, under pressure from its key NATO ally Turkey. The PKK has been a proscribed ‘terrorist’ group in the UK ever since.
For decades, the Kurdish community has faced terrorism stops at airports, harassment and criminalisation, but this is the first time such an extensive range of charges has been deployed in court.
Turkey is a key British ally in the region, and has long actively sought the criminalisation of the Kurdish diaspora by its Western allies.
British nationals have been prosecuted in recent years for allegedly travelling to join the PKK or associated Syrian Kurdish armed forces in their fight against the Islamic State militant group – even though the Kurds’ war against ISIS was fought with backing from the UK and US. Defendants had previously worked with UK government ministers to raise awareness of Kurdish rights and abuses, including regular interactions with deputy prime minister David Lammy. Karatas had been scheduled to attend an event commemorating victims of ISIS’ brutality and hosted by Middle East minister Hamish Falconer on the morning of his arrest.
“I [previously] felt comfortable in engaging in Kurdish politics in the country I was born and bred in,” says Karatas. “To this day, and throughout the trial, I have championed parliamentary engagements to promote discussions on Kurdish culture and politics.”
The PKK officially disbanded altogether in 2025, beginning a disarmament process and peace talks with Turkey. Operation Hydrascope Despite these developments, the British police launched simultaneous dawn raids in November 2024, targeting the Kurdish Community Centre in Haringey and the home of the six defendants.
In an application to have the defendants held for further questioning, police stated that “over 800 police officers and staff” were engaged in the investigation, “all working extended hours”, according to a lawyer involved in the case. The case, dubbed “Operation Hydrascope”, is thus believed to be the UK’s largest terrorism investigation since the height of ISIS attacks on UK soil in 2017, and one of the largest ever against a left-wing organisation.
The scale of the trial and investigation is remarkable given that even the prosecution’s own expert witness, Ghadi Sary, testified in court that the PKK poses “no threat” to people in the UK. There was no suggestion of any violent activity during the nearly five-month trial.
Instead, the prosecution evidence focused on the defendants organising and speaking at events at the Kurdish Community Centre, forwarding WhatsApp messages concerning these events, collecting donations for Kurdish refugees, flying the PKK flag, wearing traditional Kurdish clothes, and singing a well-known Kurdish revolutionary song.
Notably, prosecutors argued that even if defendants did not know or believe themselves to be part of the PKK, and were not seen as PKK members by the organisation itself, these actions in support of the PKK showed “shared aims” with the Kurdish political movement and thus constituted de facto membership of the banned organisation. RELATED Met chief should resign over Palestine comments, ex-senior officer says In his closing speech, Blaxland told the jury there was literally “nothing to see” on the membership charge, calling the prosecution both “unjust” and “stupid.”
Kurdish woman Berfin Kerban was subsequently cleared of membership of the PKK, as were Agit Karatas and Mazlum Sayak whose lesser charges were also dropped on Friday. Turkan Ozcan, Ali Boyraz and Ercan Akbal, all parents and grandparents aged in their late 50s and early 60s, remain under investigation for both membership and several lesser charges. “The criminalisation of Kurdish political activity undermines trust and mutual friendships built over decades between the state and its citizens, many of whom have escaped persecution and found safe haven in Britain,” Karatas said following the verdict.
The investigation and prosecution of individuals accused of “sharing aims” with proscribed organisations continues to be an issue of acute relevance in the UK. “Counter-terrorism legislation is being tested to see how much the state can get away with,” said Iida Käyhkö, a researcher in security studies at Royal Holloway University London who has followed the case from its outset. Käyhkö said the trial against the activist is part of an “effort by the British government to broaden and intensify the use of counterterrorism legislation against political movements in recent years, particularly evident in the proscription of Palestine Action.”
“By accident or by design, the use of proscription has the effect of criminalising wider political and social movements.”
The retrial, expected to last around 10 weeks, is scheduled to begin 10 January 2028. The post No convictions in Kurdish terror trial at Old Bailey appeared first on Declassified UK .