Denmark: 11 charged for funding Kurdish rebels

justice.thumbnailDenmark’s public prosecution authority will charge 11 men with terror funding after they were accused of funding Kurdish rebels with 130m kroner ($22.7m). Chief prosecutor Lise-Lotte Nilas said this is Denmark’s most comprehensive criminal case to date on terrorism.

She explained the public prosecutor’s main accusation is that extremely large sums of money were raised over a period of several years for the PKK terrorist organisation – Turkey’s separatist rebels the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

Turkey and many other nations list the PKK as a terrorist group. The organisation began its conflict with the government in 1984, when it fought for self-rule in the country’s Kurdish-majority southeast. Some 45,000 people died in the fighting.

The Danish Prosecution Service said the 11 accused men had a long-lasting and close relationship with the organisation. Six of the accused are being charged with actively collecting money in Denmark and four face charges of distributing money to other countries across Europe. The other man is accused of sending the PKK funds in 2006 and 2007.

Denmark’s maximum penalty for someone found guilty of raising money for a terrorist orgnisation is a 10-year prison sentence. However, the prosecution is not revealing the length of the sentence it is aiming for until criminal proceedings start in autumn.

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