CAMPAIGNERS have demanded the immediate release of exiled musician Ihsan Cibelik who was jailed in Germany earlier this week. 

He was detained as he returned home from a doctor’s appointment Tuesday evening and was handcuffed for four hours as police ransacked his home. 

Mr Cibelik, who is a member of Grup Yorum, a revolutionary music band from Turkey, was taken to court and jailed the next day in the city of Karlsruhe. 

“Ihsan Cibelik is a very well-known musician, he is an anti-fascist, an anti-imperialist, a revolutionary musician who has spent many years in jail in Turkey and now is in jail in Germany,” a statement said. 

Many Grup Yorum members have been forced into exile and have a bounty placed on their heads by the Turkish state. 

In 2020, bass player Ibrahim Gokcek died just days after ending a hunger strike in protest against political repression and for the right to play music. 

Singer Helen Bolek also died in prison in April 2020 after refusing food for 288 days. 

The government accuses Grup Yorum of links to the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C) which is deemed a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the European Union.