by Steve Sweeney

TRADE unionists and communists held a mass rally outside a Munich court on Tuesday after 10 left-wing activists were convicted on terrorism charges following a much-criticised trial that lasted more than four years.

They were found guilty of financing the Communist Party of Turkey–Marxist Leninist (TKP-ML) via the Turkish Workers Confederation (Atik), which represents migrant workers living in Europe.

Nine men and one woman were handed prison sentences ranging from three years to six-and-a-half years despite appeals that they had not broken any German laws.

The TKP-ML is banned as a terrorist organisation in Turkey but is not proscribed in Germany or any other country.

Atik co-leader Suleyman Gurkan declared the defendants to be innocent and hit out at the sentencing, saying that the German court’s verdict had been made at the behest of the Turkish state.

“We, as revolutionary and democratic forces from over 20 countries and 35 organisations, condemn the decision,” he said.

The 10 activists were arrested in April 2015 as part of a Europe-wide move against those suspected of TKP-ML membership, with police operations taking place in Germany, Greece, Switzerland and France.

All those arrested were brought to Germany, and the trial started the following year in the Munich high court.

The TKP-ML, founded in 1972, traces its history back to revolutionary leader Ibrahim Kaypakkaya, a prominent Marxist theorist known for his analysis of Kemalism, which he identified as a form of fascism.

The party has waged a guerilla war against the Turkish state through its armed wing, Tikko, which also has forces in northern Syria fighting Isis alongside the Kurdish YPG people’s protection units.

The trial finally ended last week with one of the defendants, Erhan Aturk, insisting the defendants were doing the same thing that communists and revolutionaries had done for oppressed people throughout history.

“That’s why we’re acquitted,” he said, “not in the courtroom but in the hearts of the oppressed peoples.”

Sixty-year-old Muslum Elma, who was the only of those charged to be held in prison throughout the trial, insisted he would not be silenced despite his six-year sentence.

“As we shine a light on the darkness, they will close their eyes,” he said, referring to the German state.

“But the masses … will also change the course of history. We must believe this.”

An appeal against the sentencing is expected.