Belgium’s Foreigners Litigation Council ruled that the acts committed by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) cannot be considered terrorist acts as a whole, over the case of a Kurdish citizen of Turkey, according to a report by the ANF.

The council was assessing the rejection of the Kurdish man’s appeal for asylum on the grounds of having participated in the financing of the PKK.

“On the basis of the various sources of information submitted to it concerning the nature, structure, organisation and methods of the PKK, the Council considers that the acts committed by this organisation, taken as a whole, cannot be qualified as terrorist acts,” the council said in the ruling.

The applicant cannot be excluded from the benefit of international protection on the basis of Article 1 Section F of the Geneva Convention, it said, adding that other exclusion clauses could apply. The Kurdish man’s case could later be assessed on whether there are “serious reasons” to think he could have had involvement with “possible war crimes allegedly committed by the PKK”, it said.

PKK is included in the European Union’s list of foreign terrorist organisations, however, campaigns continue for its delisting and several European courts have issued favourable rulings towards that end over the years.