Metin Kaplan, a Turkish Islamist activist known as the "Caliph of Cologne," was indicted on sedition charges and jailed by an Istanbul criminal court yesterday, the day after he lost a protracted legal battle against deportation from Germany. The court charged Kaplan with "attempting to overthrow the secular order by use of arms" as part of multiple proceedings launched against him in absentia and set the trial for Dec. 20. The most spectacular charge against Kaplan, 51, alleges that he planned to attack the mausoleum in Ankara of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern and secular Turkey, with an explosives-laden plane during the republic's 75th anniversary celebrations in 1998.
Kaplan, divested for the occasion of his customary turban and robes and wearing a business suit, with tie-less shirt buttoned at the collar, refused to stand before the judge, prompting a warning that he could be found in contempt and barred from attending his own trial. He denied any such intention, saying he was "unwell, tired and hungry" after 10 hours in detention at the Istanbul airport, where he arrived Tuesday night aboard a private flight laid on by the Rhineland-North Westphalia land that has been trying to get rid of him for years. Kaplan refused to plead, saying he needed time to organize his defense with his lawyers. His attorney, Husnu Tuna, said he had not worked out a line of defense yet, but rejected the charge of attempting to blow up Ataturk's mausoleum as "a set-up."
| Since he's such a traditionalist, might one suggest to the honorable court that he be strangled with a bowstring? |
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