Sedat Yurttas of the Democratic Society Party (DTP) was the second Kurdish politician to be convicted this week for "praising a criminal offender", after party chairman Ahmet Turk.

The court in Diyarbakir, the biggest city in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey, found Yurttas guilty for referring to Ocalan as "Sayin" -- a word meaning esteemed or honorable, but which also doubles for "mister" -- in a television interview last year.

Yurttas' lawyers said they would appeal the sentence.

The same court on Tuesday sentenced DTP leader Turk to six months in jail on the same charges.

Ocalan is the head of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has fought for Kurdish self-rule in the southeast since 1984, in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

He is serving a life sentence for treason and separatism.

Kurdish politicians are routinely suspected by Ankara of supporting the PKK and are often prosecuted for alleged links to the group which has been blacklisted by Ankara, the United States and the European Union.