Eight men were arrested in France today in an investigation linked to the financing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a source close to the case said, as confirmed by France’s national anti-terrorism prosecution (Pnat).

The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said the men were arrested in the Saint-Saint-Denis, Saint-Marne and Bouches-de-Rhône regions as part of a preliminary investigation targeting the PKK, which has been designated a “terrorist” organization by Ankara and its western allies.

The preliminary examination is aimed at events committed between 2000 and 2004 and is conducted for “participation in a criminal organization with the purpose of preparing a terrorist act, financing a terrorist operation, extortion and attempted extortion in an organized gang in connection with a terrorist operation”.

Investigators suspect the eight men are linked to the “kampanya,” the collection of the revolutionary tax from merchants and members of the Kurdish community settled in France, according to a source close to the case.

The arrests were made by the Sub-Directorate for Counter-Terrorism (Sdat) and the OCRGDF (Central Office for the Suppression of Major Financial Crime).

On Monday, searches were also carried out for the same case in Belgium, in the Denderli district, at the television studios of Sterk TV and Medya News, two Kurdish television networks broadcasting from Belgium, according to a statement from these media outlets sent to AFP.

The operation, which involved members of the federal police, “was aimed, at the request of a third country, at the search for possible evidence of terrorist financing,” according to a statement from the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office.

Pnat confirmed that “the investigations carried out in Belgium were carried out in the context of a request for European assistance issued by a French anti-terrorism judge”.

Detentions can last up to 96 hours.