diff --git a/src/common/gajim.py b/src/common/gajim.py
index c60b5317c..ee1ba1e94 100644
--- a/src/common/gajim.py
+++ b/src/common/gajim.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import logging
 import locale
 import gi
 import uuid
+from distutils.version import LooseVersion as V
 
 from common import config
 import nbxmpp
@@ -165,7 +166,19 @@ except ImportError:
 HAVE_GPG = True
 GPG_BINARY = 'gpg'
 try:
-    __import__('gnupg')
+    import gnupg
+    '''
+    We need https://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-gnupg
+    but https://pypi.python.org/pypi/gnupg shares the same package name.
+    It cannot be used as a drop-in replacement.
+    We test with a version check if python-gnupg is installed as it is
+    on a much lower version number than gnupg
+    Also we need at least python-gnupg 0.3.8
+    '''
+    v_gnupg = gnupg.__version__
+    if V(v_gnupg) < V('0.3.8') or V(v_gnupg) > V('1.0.0'):
+        log.info('Gajim needs python-gnupg >= 0.3.8')
+        HAVE_GPG = False
 except ImportError:
     HAVE_GPG = False
 else: