German police arrest PKK suspect in Berlin

By Cuneyt Karadag

BERLIN

German police have arrested a 56-year-old PKK suspect in Berlin, allegedly responsible for financial tasks inside the terror group, a prosecutor said on Thursday.

A statement released by the prosecutor's office in Celle, Lower Saxony, revealed that the man identified only as Zahir A. -- a Turkish national -- was held on Tuesday on an arrest warrant issued in late April.

The prosecutor claimed the suspect was regulating organizational, financial, personnel and propagandistic matters for the terror group on a regional basis in Salzgitter between March 2014 and June 2015.

The suspect was part of the European Kurdish Democratic Societies, which is the PKK's Europe structure, the statement added.

Prosecutors said the group, with its military-structured units, is targeting security institutions and civilians in Turkey while "their members in Germany and other countries of Western European are primarily responsible for raising funds for the organization and for recruiting young guerrillas".

The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- resumed its decades-old armed campaign in July 2015.

Since then, more than 1,200 victims, including security force personnel and civilians, have lost their lives.

* Ilker Girit contributed to this story from Istanbul.