Suspected PKK money man charged in Germany

German federal prosecutors on Tuesday pressed charges against a 46-year-old Turkish man suspected of raising money for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) throughout Europe.

Prosecutors charged the man, identified only as Abdullah S., with "membership of a foreign terrorist organisation".

They said he worked under the codename "Hamza" in Germany between June 2003 and June 2004 "getting money for the PKK by collecting donations and contributions, running commercial activities and selling propaganda material".

He also drummed up support for PKK demonstrations and organisations, prosecutors charged.

From May 2005 to June 2007, Abdullah S. stayed with the PKK leadership in northern Iraq before returning to run the "economic and finance office" of the PKK in Europe, they alleged.

He was arrested on April 27 and has since been in police custody.

The PKK, which took up arms in its campaign for autonomy in southeast Turkey in 1984, is branded a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies. More than 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, have died since the conflict began.