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13 Kurds arrested in France over 'terror financing'

PARIS, Feb 5, 2007 (AFP) - Thirteen Kurds from Turkey were arrested near Paris on Monday on suspicion of money-laundering on behalf of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), police said.

The 12 men and one woman are being held on suspicion of "criminal association in relation with a terrorist enterprise" as well as "funding terrorism" and "organised money-laundering", police said.

The PKK is regarded as a terrorist organisation by the European Union, the United States and Turkey.

The arrests followed an incident in which two Turkish Kurds were detained over a suspicious cash-changing transaction involving 200,000 euros (260,000 dollars). Police gave no further details of the suspects.

The 13 were seized in the Paris region departments of Yvelines, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val d'Oise, as part of an investigation headed by France's top anti-terrorist judge, Jean-Louis Bruguiere.