A German court on Friday handed a prison sentence of two years and three months to a member of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The court sided with prosecutors, who argued that the 60-year-old had been the head of the Mainz chapter of the PKK under the code name Colak since Aug. 2015.

The PKK is designated a terrorist organisation in Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

It was the defendant’s task to organise and monitor an annual fundraising campaign, among other things.

He received financial support from the PKK for his work.

The court took into account that the defendant never used violence and that he was not involved in the planning or execution of terrorist attacks.

More than 40,000 have died in the decades-old conflict between the PKK and Turkey, after a peace process collapsed in 2015, ending a two-year ceasefire, the government said it would not return to talks with the group.

Turkey has repeatedly accused the German government of harbouring PKK militants.