Turkey sentences German-Kurdish singer to over three years in jail

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Saide Inac, a Kurdish singer better known by her stage name Hozan Cane, was sentenced in absentia by Turkey on Monday for her alleged support of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), German media reported.

Under the sentence, Cane will have to serve over three years in prison. She did not participate in her trial since she has been back in Germany since July after a Turkish court lifted her travel ban.

Read More: Court lifts travel ban, allowing German-Kurdish singer to leave Turkey

Turkish police arrested Cane in Edirne province in 2018 amid accusations of her PKK affiliation, which has been fighting a decades-long insurgency with Ankara over Kurdish rights in Turkey. She spent more than two years in prison.

Her arrest and later conviction led to multiple public calls for her release by Kurdish activists and German politicians.

Cane, who now holds dual Turkish-German citizenship, originally traveled to Germany to seek asylum at the height of the deadly conflict between the Turkish military and the PKK in the 1990s.

Gönül Örs, Cane's daughter, was also arrested on terrorism charges in September 2019 after visiting her mother in detention. She was subsequently sentenced to more than ten years in jail but was permitted to return to Germany after her own travel ban was lifted.

Several German citizens, mostly Kurds, have been arrested in Turkey in the crackdown on opposition parties and Kurds began in the aftermath of the failed July 2016 coup.

On Saturday, in a farewell visit to Turkey, the outgoing German chancellor Angela Merkel met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. She addressed Turkey's prosecution of German citizens, Zeit reported. 

The German leader noted that Turkey and Germany have different ideas about terrorism and human rights.