A German court rejected Turkey's request on Tuesday to extradite an Islamic militant leader accused of plotting bomb attacks, saying he could face "political persecution" in Turkey. Turkish authorities allege Muhammed Metin Kaplan masterminded a failed plot in October 1998 to crash a plane laden with explosives into the mausoleum of the modern republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. On the same day, they say, he planned a violent occupation of Istanbul's Fatih mosque. Kaplan is the leader of a Cologne-based group called Caliphate State, which has been banned in Germany.
| Kaplan's a hell of a name for a caliph, isn't it? Though I guess Cohen would be worse... |
The Turkish militant had been serving a four-year prison sentence in Duesseldorf for incitement in the killing of a rival cleric in Berlin in 1997. His sentence ended in March, but he remained in custody pending an extradition ruling.
| I guess I'd let him off easy for bumping off a mullah, too... |
On Tuesday, the superior state court in Duesseldorf ruled against extradition and ordered Kaplan's immediate release. The court said there were "serious grounds" to believe that, if extradited, Kaplan would be prosecuted using testimony "extorted by police" and that the trial would "have the character of political persecution." Official documents from Turkey raised concern that Kaplan's followers were tortured by Turkish police during investigations in 1998, it said. The German government backed the extradition effort, which appeared to clear a major hurdle when Turkey abolished the death penalty last year. But Germany also sought Turkish assurances that Kaplan wouldn't be tortured on his return.
"Now, don't hurt 'im, okay?"
"We won't. We promise."
"Then why's that guy in the fez curling his moustachios and snickering?" |
Kaplan's group calls for the overthrow of Turkey's secular government and its replacement with an Islamic state. Interior Minister Otto Schily has described the group as a "breeding ground" for terrorists, though he said it has no links to al-Qaida or other international terrorist groups.
| It just funnels wannabe jihadis into them... |
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