Selim Sadak and Hatip Dicle, former deputies for the now-banned Democracy Party, could be jailed for up to two years if convicted over an interview they gave in September to the Denmark-based Kurdish television channel, Roj TV.

The report of the indictments came as a group of 25 Kurds in neighbouring Armenia staged a hunger strike Thursday in protest over Ocalan's detention on the prison island of Imrali in the Marmara sea south of Istanbul.

"Recently the Turkish authorities have toughened Ocalan's detention conditions. His health is threatened," said organiser Jenia Amirian.

"He is not allowed to see his lawyers. His hour-long exercise sessions have been forbidden. We want to bring the attention of international opinion to Turkey's inhumane behaviour," she said.

The news agency said Dicle and Sadak were accused of terming Ocalan's jail sentence "isolation" and asserting that "this will never be accepted by the Kurdish people" of Turkey.

The pair spent 10 years behind bars with two other ex-deputies, Orhan Dogan and Leyla Zana, on charges of backing Ocalan's outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Freed in June 2004 the four are awaiting trial for a third time.

The Turkish government accuses Roj TV of being a PKK mouthpiece.

Ocalan, now 57, was sentenced to death in 1999 for his role in the PKK's armed struggle for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish-populated southeast which has claimed 37,000 lives since 1984.

His sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2002 after Turkey abolished capital punishment as part of reforms to boost its bid to join the European Union.

Last year, Ankara introduced restrictions on Ocalan's meetings with his lawyers, whom it accused of carrying orders from the rebel leader to his militants who have recently stepped up their armed campaign.