GERMAN authorities have come under fire for demanding the removal of five children from their mother because of her activities in the Kurdish freedom struggle and protests against war in northern Syria.

The Oberhausen District court judge quizzed Zozan G and her four-year-old son and other children at a hearing in December, during which the family did not have a lawyer present.

Despite the Youth Office deciding that they are not at risk, prosecutors are pressing for her five children, aged between four and 15 to be taken into custody, accusing her of indoctrinating them with “PKK [Kurdistan Workers Party] propaganda.”

Proceedings began after her daughter Lorin took part in a demonstration in March outside the Dusseldorf state parliament in support of prison inmates on hunger strike in Turkey over jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan continuing to be held in isolation.

Thousands of people took part in the action, which was instigated by imprisoned Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) parliamentarian Leyla Guven in November last year. 

The hunger strike ended in May at Mr Ocalan’s request, shortly after he was given access to his lawyers for the first time since 2011.

Lorin G was detained by police as part of a group who wanted to present a dossier of war crimes allegedly committed by the Turkish state to parliamentarians. Authorities feared that they were going to occupy the Dusseldorf government offices.

She was also accused of taking part in a youth march from Mannheim to Karlsruhe in February where authorities claim she held a flag displaying a portrait of Mr Ocalan — banned under German law.

Zozan G, a prominent Kurdish rights activist, said the case, which has been adjourned until January 22, was being brought with the intention of intimidating Kurds and “to make us give up our rights.”

She told German newspaper Link Zeitung: “The accusation made against me is ‘child welfare risk.’ My children are not at risk. I educate them to be people who have an opinion, who represent human values and who stand up for them. 

“Obviously, they want to make an example of me, to intimidate me so that I stop getting involved in politics.”

It appears her activities have been spied on by the state for a number of years, as she explained that authorities had presented photographs of her speaking at pro-Kurdish rallies and transcripts of her speeches.

Zozan G insisted that she rejects violence and that the political events that she has participated were in opposition to war and the killing of Kurds and others.

A demonstration in support of Zozan G and her family will take place outside the court hearing in Oberhausen on January 22.