Hüseyin Baybaşın moved to secure Dutch prison at Turkey’s bidding instead of release

Sheri Laizer | Exclusive to iKurd.net

“Either he comes to Turkey, or you keep him in prison.” Turkish officials.

After thirty hard and heavy years held hostage in the Netherlands, despite an unavoidable pardon, Turkey insists the Kurdish prisoner support PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan’s Turkey-orchestrated game.

Hüseyin’s legal representatives had been invited on 17 March 2026 via a high level female official in the Dutch Justice Ministry that in order to go on with the “reintegration” programme pending his release, Hüseyin needed to go to the Turkish Consulate to get a Turkish passport.

His lawyer argued that in such a case the Dutch could not protect him: he already has Article 3 findings as to risks that say he cannot be sent back to Turkey as he would face likely torture or death.

The Dutch official then admitted this to be correct but still insisted that he go the Turkish Consulate as the Turks had said he will be safe.

For the past three years the Dutch MOJ (and Turkey) has been demanding to know what safe third country Hüseyin was accepted by upon release.

He and his lawyer have repeatedly responded that they will only reveal the destination once he is safely there. The stipulation has unlawfully delayed his release date for the past three years.

Turks play “Dubai” lure game

The weekend after this, Hüseyin and his lawyers got a request from Turkey that Hüseyin travels to Dubai and lives there for the next ten years. (He would then be 80 years old if he lived).

They said all costs would be covered by Turkey: he could live in a luxury villa and enjoy full medical care as well as having his family join him there.

Hüseyin asked, so what do I have to do? He called the Dutch MOJ and was told he has only to fill in a consent form. He refused. It sounded like a similar conspiracy to the plot that delivered Abdullah Ocalan via Kenya into the hands of his Turkish masters on February 15, 1999, thereafter, to control everything he said to undermine the Kurdish cause.

The following week, between 1-3 April 2026, a Dutch delegation that included former Naval officer, David van Weel, the Dutch Minister of Justice and Security travelled to Ankara to meet the Turkish Interior and Exterior ministers.

Photos were posted online by the Dutch MOJ and by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Four or five people in some of the photos can be recognised).

Hakan Fidan, former MIT chief, now Foreign Minister in Erdogan’s government sits with David van Weel in Ankara. Hüseyin Baybaşin was a major topic of the meeting, sources say.

David Van Weel also posted pictures on his own FB page of the meeting with expressions of praise for his Turkish counterparts.

Sources close to the meeting later informed Hüseyin and his legal team that there had been an argument at the meeting when the Dutch MOJ told the Turkish officials “We have to let him go.”

The response was, “No! Either he comes to Turkey, or you keep him in prison.”

Turkish state controlled media organisation, Daily Sabah, published a story headed ‘Dutch failure to extradite terrorists worries Turkiye’ – the date coincides with the Baybaşin case. It observed of this meeting:

“Justice Minister Akın Gürlek hosted Dutch Minister of Justice and Security David van Weel on Wednesday. The meeting inevitably focused on the extradition of the terror suspects wanted by Türkiye. Gürlek highlighted the fact that they were still awaiting the extradition of 217 Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and eight PKK members from the Netherlands, the ministry said in a statement regarding the meeting.

“The Netherlands’ permissive stance toward members of FETÖ and the PKK has been a thorn in relations between the two countries in the past, and Gürlek’s statement indicated that the issue has lingered…

We particularly value mutual judicial cooperation between the two countries on issues such as organized crime, the fight against organized crime, drug trafficking, migrant smuggling and the laundering of proceeds of crime. Cooperation between judicial authorities will also strengthen the cooperation between the countries and undertake an important task in terms of the effectiveness of international justice.”…

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) after the meeting, van Weel said Dutch-Turkish ties have been perfect, adding that they may cooperate more in counterterrorism and fight against organized crime. The minister said they had close ties with Türkiye in counterterrorism, reminding that the PKK and DHKP-C were recognized as terrorist groups by the Netherlands. “Counterterrorism cooperation contributes to the security of the two countries,” he said.

Former Dutch PM, Mark Rutte, is currently the General Secretary of NATO. David van Weel is NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges. [1]

Cleared of all charges but still imprisoned

Kurdish captive, Hüseyin Baybaşin, who has won all his cases but continues to be smeared is not mentioned in the media but only behind closed doors. Despite his thirty-year fight against the conspiracy between Turkey and the Dutch MOJ, he remains a subject of high Turkish political interest for his Kurdish stand.

One of those who first participated in the set-up was Yücel Yeşilgöz. His daughter, Dilan Yeşilgöz – dubbed by some the ‘pitbull in heels’ 2 – was named Dutch Minister of Defense and Security, and Deputy Prime Minister this February.

She had been appointed Dutch Minister of Justice on January 10, 2022 and remained in post until July 2, 2024. She broadly claims to play the Kurdish card.3 However, she had no legal qualifications at the time of her legal appointment.

In Hüseyin’s long running case, her father’s role as ‘criminologist’ represented a direct conflict of interest which she refused to acknowledge in correspondence with his legal team. Born in Ankara, although her parents became refugees in Holland, the Turks call her ‘Turkish.’ She calls herself Dutch..

The pardon by the Minister of Justice is still sitting there on his desk to be rubber stamped but instead the solution to Turkey’s demand had been to isolate Hüseyin completely and even good willing people in the system have so far been powerless to intervene.

Some of those who approached Hüseyin claim that all he has to do is to endorse Ocalan’s line. However, the political manifesto he had spearheaded lodged with the UN with demands for the recognition of the independent States of Kurdistan is the reverse of Ocalan’s policy from his island prison. 4

No more law – Alphen aan de Rijn Prison Solitary Confinement

Hüseyin was unlawfully moved to a high security Dutch prison, PI Alphen aan de Rijn where migrants had also formerly been held. 5 Here he is being confined 23 hours a day without any fresh air and the sun coming in or external contact or phone-calls except for conversations with his lawyers.

He cannot speak with family or friends despite the ‘re-integration programme’ having proceeded to the stage of meeting family outside the prison for lunch etc. albeit under some sympathetic but armed security protection.

Alphen aan de Rijn is a secure prison similar to where Hüseyin was first held hostage thirty years ago. [6] Phone tap evidence had been manipulated. [7] It had also been mistranslated.

See the post of a former penitentiary worker on the background of the case – the auto dub into English does not pronounce Huseyin Baybaşin’s name accurately:

The message has been made abundantly clear: Give in to Turkey’s demands by supporting Ocalan or await suffering and death in prison in the Netherlands.

Needless to say, had he set foot in the Turkish Consulate in the Netherlands, Kurdish rights activist, Hüseyin Baybaşin would almost certainly have been delivered to Imrali Island and positioned beside Abdullah Ocalan to crush the Kurdish struggle in Turkey.

On 31 May 2026 a new campaign for Huseyin’s release was launched in the name of Hüseyin Baybaşin – the Right to Justice and Hope. [8]

Sheri Laizer, a Middle East and North African expert specialist and well known commentator on the Kurdish issue. She is a senior contributing writer for iKurd.net. More about Sheri Laizer see below.

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