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| Europe |
| 'Terrorist' can be extradited |
| 2004-11-24 |
| A GERMAN court said today it has ruled that a Syrian-German businessman indicted by Spain on charges he is a key al-Qaeda figure can be extradited, and Hamburg authorities said they had given their approval for the move. Mamoun Darkazanli was arrested last month on a Spanish warrant. The move came after the so-called European arrest warrant - a system meant to allow the swift cross-border surrender of terror suspects - came into force. Mr Darkazanli's lawyers launched a new legal effort to block the move, asking Germany's highest court to rule on their argument that the new system violates the German constitution. But it was unclear whether that would succeed. The Hamburg state court said it ruled on Tuesday that "there is no obstacle to extradition," and Anette Hitpass, a spokeswoman for the city-state's justice ministry, said the ministry had approved the move - the next legal step. Mr Darkazanli, 46, is accused by Spanish authorities of providing al-Qaeda with logistical and financial support. He appears in a 1999 wedding video with two of the three September 11, 2001 suicide pilots who lived and studied in Hamburg - Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah. The US has labelled Mr Darkazanli's Hamburg-based trading company a front for terrorism. He appeared on US suspect lists after September 11 but has denied any links to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden or the attacks. Mr Darkazanli has never been charged in Germany, which did not extradite its own citizens before the European arrest warrant came into force. German police questioned him shortly after the attacks, but he was freed for lack of evidence and continued to live in the northern port city. Mr Darkazanli is among 41 suspects, including bin Laden himself, indicted by Baltasar Garzon, a Spanish judge investigating al-Qaeda. He faces up to 12 years in prison in Spain if convicted of membership in a terrorist organisation. His lawyers, Guel Pinar and Michael Rosenthal, said "a great variety of doubts about the European arrest warrant and its implementation in national law" prompted them to file a complaint with Germany's highest court. Pinar maintained that that should halt the extradition. |
| Posted by:God Save The World |