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Germany captures a suspected PKK leader

BERLIN, Aug 10, 2006 (AFP) - German authorities said Thursday they had captured a suspected ringleader of the banned Kurdish rebel group PKK who is accused of promoting and securing financing for the organization.

The federal prosecutor's office in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe said the 50-year-old Turk of Kurdish origin was arrested Tuesday and is believed to have been the leader of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) and its political wing KONGA-GEL in southern Germany since June 2005.

The federal supreme court issued an arrest warrant for the suspect, identified only as Muzaffer A., Monday on charges of managing in a criminal organization.

He is believed to have organized financing and propaganda activities for the group and to have helped smuggle illegal immigrants into Germany.

The PKK carried out a campaign of firebombings on German and Turkish institutions in Germany in the 1990s and has been banned in the country since 1993.

Its separatist campaign in southeastern Turkey has claimed nearly 37,000 lives since 1984.