German sentences member of Kurdish PKK group to prison

BERLIN – A court in western Germany has convicted a 60-year-old Turkish citizen of membership in the banned Kurdish militant group PKK.

The dpa news agency reported Tuesday that the Koblenz regional court sentenced the man, whose name wasn’t released, to two years and six months imprisonment for “membership in a foreign terrorist organization.”

Prosecutors accused the defendant, who lives in Germany, of organizing propaganda campaigns and soliciting donations for the PKK.

The group, whose acronym stands for Kurdistan Workers’ Party, began an insurgency against Turkey in the mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984 and the conflict has killed tens of thousands of people.