Germany: PKK member sentenced to over 3 years in prison

By Cuneyt Karadag

BERLIN (AA) - A German court Thursday sentenced a man to three-and-a-half years in prison on charges of being a member of the PKK terrorist organization.

The Stuttgart state court said the suspect, identified only as Ali O. in line with German privacy rules, had also been running PKK finances in Europe since 2010.

Ali O. was detained in February 2015 in the city of Villingen-Schwenningen and first appeared in court that December.

The PKK – listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU – resumed its 30-year armed campaign against the Turkish state in July 2015.

Since then, PKK terrorists have martyred more than 700 Turkish security force members and claimed the lives of numerous civilians, including women and children, while around 8,000 PKK terrorists have been killed or apprehended in army operations.