Turkey continues to monitor its Kurdish opponents in Europe

According to KurdPress, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court acquitted a Turkish citizen who was accused of collecting information about Kurds and opponents of the Turkish government in the country and passing it on to the Turkish intelligence agency, of political espionage charges. This ruling was issued after the main evidence in the case was deemed inadmissible. According to the court, the evidence was obtained through illegal detention and beating of the defendant. Despite this acquittal, the case has once again raised concerns about the activities of Turkish intelligence networks among immigrant communities and opponents of the country's government in Europe. According to Nordic Monitor, the Swiss Federal Criminal Court acquitted the 45-year-old Turkish-Kurdish citizen on October 8, 2026, and made its decision public on October 16. Swiss federal prosecutors had accused the man of providing political and personal information about Kurds living in Switzerland, political activists, and individuals associated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party to the Turkish intelligence agency and the country's security agencies from July 2018 to May 2019.

According to the charges, the defendant, who previously worked at a pizzeria in the Swiss city of Biel, had sent several emails and 53 text messages containing sensitive political information to Turkish institutions. He was also accused of contacting a Turkish police unit several times between March and April 2019 and providing information about Kurdish individuals and activities. Swiss media had identified the Turkish Intelligence Agency and the country's police in Diyarbakir as possible recipients of this information.

The outcome of these cases, according to Nordic Monitor, reflects the continued concern of European governments about Turkish intelligence activities outside the country, which have allegedly targeted political opponents, journalists, Kurdish activists and members of the Gülen movement. The recent Swiss case, despite the acquittal of the accused, has once again brought into focus the issue of the possibility of intelligence gathering from Kurdish communities and Turkish government opponents in Europe and the consequences of transferring this information to Ankara’s security agencies.