GERMANY: ISLAMIC MILITANT METIN KAPLAN'S APPEARS IN COURT TO FIGHT HIS EXTRADITION BACK TO TURKEY TO FACE TREASON CHARGES.

Record ID: 376201

  • Title: GERMANY: ISLAMIC MILITANT METIN KAPLAN'S APPEARS IN COURT TO FIGHT HIS EXTRADITION BACK TO TURKEY TO FACE TREASON CHARGES.
  • Date: 27th August 2003
  • Summary: (U4) COLOGNE, GERMANY (AUGUST 27, 2003) (WRD POOL) 1. WS: EXTERIOR COLOGNE COURT. 0.03 2. CU: SIGN READING ADMINISTRATIVE COURT COLOGNE. (2 SHOTS) 0.8 3. CU: POSTER DETAILING COURT APPEARANCES. (2 SHOTS) 0.21 4. MLV/PAN: JOURNALISTS WAITING INSIDE. 0.28 5. CU/PULL OUT/MV: COURT FILES BEING TAKEN OUT OF BRIEFCASE AND LAID ON
  • Embargoed: 11th September 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: COLOGNE AND DUESSELDORF, GERMANY
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVAAX4RBK583GJY7I7C61XHR4VZD
  • Story Text: The court hearing in which Islamic extremist
    militant Metin Kaplan will fight extradition to his native
    Turkey began in Cologne on Wednesday (August 27).

    If he returns home, the 'Caliph of Cologne' will face
    treason charges by the Turkish government. He is accused of
    ordering his devoted followers to fly a plane into the
    mausoleum of Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish
    secular state, in 1998.

    The 50- year old refugee is the leader of the Colgone
    based 'Caliphate State' group, banned in 2001 after the
    German government became more alert to terrorist threats
    from extremist movements following the September 11, 2001
    attacks.

    Kaplan set up the movement in 1984 to express his
    desire for the violent overthrow of the secular Turkish
    state and replace it with an Islamic regime.

    A court in the German city of Duesseldorf turned down
    Turkish requests for the militant's extradition on May 27,
    2003, ruling that he could well suffer human rights abuses
    if he returned to his native land.

    Despite assurances from the Turkish goverment that
    legal principles would be adhered to, the German authorites
    expressed concern that statements extracted through torture
    from Kaplan's followers since 1998 might be used in
    proceedings against him in violation of international law.

    Klaus-Peter Uhlenburg, spokesman for the Cologne court,
    said two simultaneous hearings were being carried out by
    Kaplan against the German government. The first is
    concerned with the revocation of Kaplan's right to asylum
    in Germany, as he currently has asylum. The other is
    concerned with establishing what the obstacles to his
    extradition are.

    Matthias Henning, German government representative for
    foreign refugees, said he believed Kaplan would face little
    danger if extradited.

    Kaplan's barrister, Ingerborg Naumann, said she was
    convinced Kaplan posed no terrorist threat or danger. She
    said it would be a serious mistake to extradite Kaplan due
    to the dangers that he would face in Turkey, including the
    possibility of torture.


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