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Terror group member not a militant: judge

A Kurdish-Australian man who admitted to knowingly being a member of a government-listed terrorist organisation has been spared jail in Sydney.

Renas Lelikan, 40, previously pleaded guilty to membership of the Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK while in Turkey, Iraq and elsewhere between April 2011 and August 2013.

Justice Lucy McCallum in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday said it was clear Lelikan "was not a militant", convicting him and imposing a three-year community correction order including 500 hours of community service work.

"His role was that of a passive, sympathetic observer who sought to chronicle their struggle," the judge said, characterising his behaviour as "towards the lowest order of seriousness".