Paris murder suspect faces trial as Kurdish tensions resurface

PARIS – Reuters

A file picture taken on January 9, 2015 shows Kurdish people holding pictures of the three killed Kurdish women, Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan and Leyla Söylemez and shout slogans during a demonstration at İstiklal avenue in Istanbul. AFP Photo

A Turkish man suspected of murdering three Kurdish women in Paris in 2013 is to face trial amid renewed violence in Turkey’s southeast. 

According to a French judicial source, the charge against the main suspect in the case, 33-year-old Ömer Güney, will be “assassination in connection with a terrorist organization,” as requested by an investigating magistrate in July. 

Judicial sources have said he is thought to have acted under instructions from people in Turkey, and that those people may have had connections to the Turkish intelligence services. 

Turkish officials have denied the allegations, suggesting instead that the murders were related to internal disputes in the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). 

Sakine Cansız, 55, a founding member of the PKK; Fidan Doğan, 32, a spokeswoman for the organization in France and Europe; and a trainee named Leyla Şaylemez, 25, were killed in Paris on Jan. 9, 2013. 

The women were shot as cease-fire talks to end 29 years of conflict between the PKK and Turkey were starting. 

Turkey also opened an investigation into the incident. Güney came to Ankara on Aug. 22, 2012, and applied for a new passport at the Ankara Police Department a day later, according to the initial investigation. He renewed his passport on Aug. 24, 2012.