The court ruled that Zana had violated the penal code and the anti-terror law in nine different speeches, when she indirectly expressed support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The 47-year-old Zana, who has already spent a decade in jail for collaborating with the PKK, was not in court in this city in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast.

But her lawyer Cabbar Leygara told reporters they would appeal the sentence and accused the court of having curtailed the rights of the defence.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed some 44,000 lives.

Zana, who in 1995 won the European Parliament's Sakharov human rights award, and several other Kurds were elected to parliament in 1991, but lost their seats in 1994 after their party was outlawed for links with the PKK.

Zana and three colleagues spent 10 years behind bars for collaborating with the rebels. They were released in June 2004.