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 organisation".

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

Prosecutors said he was a PKK functionary in Germany for 30 months, executing orders from the party leadership on fundraising, propaganda and recruitment.

However, the court said he had been "personally subjected to abuse by the Turkish state as a member of the Kurdish ethnicity before leaving the country", citing this as a mitigating factor in his sentencing.

Turkey has repeatedly accused Berlin of harbouring "terrorists" and of failing to respond to requests to hand over suspects from the July 2016 coup as well as Kurds it believes are PKK members.

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

Germany in April reported a sharp rise in politically motivated crimes by foreigners including jihadists and Kurdish 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 so-called IS (Islamic State group), or the PKK", Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said at the time.