Heyva a Sor Kurdistanê e.V. - unexpected AFC risks through a "non-profit association".
With a news series on terrorist financing, CURENTIS would like to raise awareness of the issue. In the following, we describe the case of a non-profit association that is assigned to the PKK, which is banned and on the EU terror list. Maintaining an account for this association must therefore be assessed as an AFC risk.
The satirical politician and MEP Martin Sonneborn has made a name for himself in 2019 with a spectacular fundraising campaign. In front of the CDU headquarters, of all places, he handed over an oversized check copy for 250,000 euros to the non-profit association Heyva a Sor Kurdistanê e.V. with media attention.
At first glance, the association pursues honorable goals, such as financial support for orphans and emergency aid in the event of natural disasters. However, a brief Internet search leads to alarming clues and could point to an abuse of the given purposes for terror financing. The reports on the protection of the constitution show that the association is a sub-organization of the PKK, and when recruiting for the civil service, one must assure that one has no points of contact with the organization Red Crescent Kurdistan (and thus with the association Heyva a Sor Kurdistanê e.V. ) . As early as 2011, Rhineland-Palatinate was the first federal state to prohibit any fundraising at stands, because it was assumed that the funds would be misappropriated for the PKK. In addition, numerous rulings from asylum proceedings mention that the Kurdish Red Crescent is an underground organization of the banned PKK.
In the case of Mustafa T.'s conviction by the Munich Higher Regional Court for membership in a terrorist organization under Section 129 a/b of the Criminal Code, fundraising for the above-mentioned organization was also one of the acts committed.
Despite these numerous indications, the bank account of a larger district savings bank is displayed on the website. Insofar as the account actually exists, there could be an initial suspicion of a violation of the Patriot Act and the Foreign Trade and Payments Act due to the provision of the account. The district savings bank would then have to deal with the question of whether its own security mechanisms in the area of money laundering have taken place to a sufficient extent and have the necessary up-to-dateness.
In addition to the information deficits that the bank may have to address, this case shows a need for action on the part of the state. § Section 51 (III) of the German Tax Code (AO) stipulates that non-profit status is no longer granted if the bank is mentioned in reports on the protection of the constitution. From the point of view of CURENTIS, it is not possible to explain why a deprivation of charitable status has not taken place. The Federal Republic of Germany must address the question of whether terrorist financing is possibly being rewarded here in the donors' tax returns and whether terror is being indirectly co-financed through the tax relief for charitable associations.
