German court jails PKK militant

A German court jailed a Turkish national for membership with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on July 13 amid accusations from Ankara that Berlin was protecting the militants.

The 47-year-old defendant was convicted by the superior regional court in the southwestern city of Stuttgart for belonging to the PKK, which it called "an especially dangerous terrorist organization."

It handed down a jail sentence of three years and three months to the militant, who was not named by the court.

Prosecutors said he was a PKK militant in Germany for 30 months, executing orders from the outlawed group on fundraising, propaganda and recruitment.

Turkey has repeatedly accused Berlin of harboring "terrorists" and of failing to respond to requests to hand over suspects from the July 2016 coup attempt, as well as PKK militants.

The PKK is listed as a terror organization not just by Turkey but also the European Union and the United States.

In April, Germany reported a sharp rise in politically motivated crimes by foreigners including jihadists and PKK militants last year.

A total of 3,372 such cases were recorded, up 66.5 percent from 2015.

They include "criminal offences carried out in the name of foreign extremists" of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) or the PKK, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said at the time.

Meanwhile, new details emerged regarding the anti-PKK operation carried out on July 13, in which 44 people, including the plotters of two deadly car-bomb attacks, were detained.

The plotters of two attacks in Istanbul were apprehended in a joint operation with the National Intelligence Agency (MİT), announced Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin on July 13.