A Turkish court had issued seven international arrest warrants against Mehmet Sahin, 33, who has been living in Belgium since 2000, the prosecutor in the Belgian city of Liege said.

Sahin was arrested on Friday in Liege by the terrorism unit of the Belgian federal police as he was participating in a demonstration organised for the Kurdish New Year.

He is being held in a detention center in the suburbs of Liege.

According to Turkish authorities, Sahin has been implicated in attacks and confrontations between 1992 and 1997 with government forces in the region of Diyarbakir, in Kurdish-majority southeast Turkey.

"If you add up all the acts in question, which the Turks consider terrorism, there have been 16 deaths and 20 people injured," Belgian prosecutor Danielle Reynders said on local television.

Once an official request comes from Turkey, the appeals court in Liege will whether to extradite Sahin -- but it would have to be assured that a possible death sentence would not be eventually carried out, the prosecutor added.