DAMASCUS, Dec 19 (AFP) - Syria's state security court on Sunday sentenced a Kurdish man to two years in prison for "belonging to a secret organization", while dozens of imprisoned Kurds began a hunger strike, a rights lawyer said.

The sentenced man, Mohammed Dib Bilal, was arrested in January 2004 because he belonged to the Democratic Union Party, a banned Kurdish political group, according to human rights lawyer Anwar Bunni.

"His health has deteriorated due to the conditions in which he was detained," Bunni said.

The court also put off until next year the trial of 14 Kurds who are "accused of belonging to Al-Qaeda" and have been in detention for nearly one year.

The 14 accused announced they would "begin today a hunger strike," as would around 30 of their fellow inmates at the Saydnaya prison near the Syrian capital, Bunni said.

The hunger strike was "to protest the conditions of their detention," said Bunni, who added that the proceedings were "unjust" and "unconstitutional."

Ruled by the powerful Baath party regime since 1963, Syria is governed under emergency laws that grant extra power to security forces and courts.

Most forms of political assembly are banned and minority groups such as Kurds are frequently arrested and jailed for allegedly attempting to split up the country.

Meanwhile, the trial of Syrian opposition leader Hassan Abdul Azim that opened Sunday before a Damascus military court was adjourned until January 19, the Arab Organization for Human Rights said.

The group "expresses its concern over repeated constitutional violations by Syrian authorities and asks them to drop the charges brought against Abdul Azim", spokesman Amar Qorabi said.

Abdul Azim is the spokesman for a coalition of five disparate opposition parties which are banned in Syria known as the National Democratic Rally (NDR).

He was accused of "being in possession of banned publications", in reference to an NDR publication on democracy.

US diplomats were present at the opening court session, the rights group said.