Kurdish couple accused of terrorist financing appeal for acquittal

A Kurdish man and woman convicted of terrorist financing by a Szeged court have appealed against the first-instance ruling.

The couple are accused of serving the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in northern Iraq, which is classified as a terrorist organisation by the European Union.

The court in southern Hungary on Thursday sentenced the two Kurdish nationals to two years in prison. Read more here

It also ruled that the defendants should be expelled from Hungary after serving their term for a period of eight years. Taking into account their time on remand, they face being expelled imminently.

The man had worked for PKK managing logistics tasks as a volunteer from 2009. The woman joined PKK in 2010 aged 15 and met her future husband in 2014 in Syria. Despite threats from the organisation, they fled and got married in Iraq the following year.