DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (AFP)--A Kurdish mayor in southeastern Turkey was sentenced to 10 months in prison Thursday for praising jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

The court in Diyarbakir sentenced Huseyin Kalkan, the mayor of nearby Batman and member of Turkey's main Kurdish party, under a provision that penalizes helping terrorist groups and spreading their propaganda.

Ocalan is the leader of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara and much of the international community. He has been serving a life sentence for treason since 1999.

The charges against Kalkan stemmed from a 2006 interview with the Los Angeles Times in which he described Ocalan as the leader of the Kurdish people, argued that the PKK was not a terrorist group and that its members should be allowed to do politics.

Kalkan's lawyers argued that their client used his democratic right to express his opinions and said they would appeal the sentence.

Kalkan's Democratic Society Party, or DTP, itself is under the risk of being banned for alleged links with the PKK in a case at the Constitutional Court.

The DTP, which holds 20 seats in the 550-member parliament, rejects the accusations, but its members have often come under fire for refusing to brand the PKK a terrorist group and for voicing sympathy for the rebels.

The PKK took up arms for self-rule in southeast Turkey in 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.