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Police hunt 'Caliph of Cologne'
German police have launched a manhunt for the suspected extremist known as the Caliph of Cologne, a day after his extradition to Turkey was ordered. Metin Kaplan had vanished from his home in Cologne when police went to detain him after Wednesday's court decision to send him to Turkey. At least 100 German officers are taking part in the search for Mr Kaplan, who is wanted in Turkey on treason charges.
Tisk, tisk, Germans used to be much more "efficent" at this sort of thing.
His Caliphate State group wants an end to Turkey's secular government. The group was banned by the German government in the wake of the 11 September attacks on the US. The allegations against Mr Kaplan include claims that he planned to fly a plane into the mausoleum of Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern, secular Turkey.
Well, not him personally, he's much too holy for that.
The court decision for him to be extradited was taken on Wednesday in Muenster, near Cologne. The decision reversed earlier rulings that Mr Kaplan could stay in Germany as he would not receive a fair trial in Turkey. An arrest warrant was issued and police went to detain him, but he had already vanished. "Kaplan has disappeared. He is being searched for," a police spokesman in Cologne said. Mr Kaplan has served a four-year prison sentence in Germany for inciting members of his group to murder a rival Islamic leader. He was freed in March last year. Reports in Germany suggest he may have fled to the Netherlands, where he is believed to have a number of supporters.
And now, if caught in the Netherlands, I expect another long round of court hearings on extraditing back to Germany.
At which point he'll scoot to Belgium...
Can't wait for a Belgian court to indict him for crimes against humanity ...


Never mind...
German police call off hunt for suspected Turkish extremist
German police called off a Europe-wide manhunt for a suspected Turkish extremist leader after a court granted him a two-month reprieve as a final ruling is sought on his deportation order.
Why? It doesn't matter where he is?
Metin Kaplan, known as the Caliph of Cologne, was reported missing late Wednesday after police went to his home in the western German city to act on an arrest warrant issued after a court gave its approval for him to be deported. But Cologne's administrative court on Thursday handed Kaplan a two-month reprieve to await a final verdict. The Turk cannot be deported within that period. "Consequently, our search operations have stopped," said a spokesman for Cologne police, which had widened their hunt to Europe.
"We'll start hunting for him when the two months are up...
The 51-year-old Islamic fundamentalist ended a four-year prison term in Germany in March 2003 for inciting members of the Hilafet Devleti group or "Caliphate" to murder a rival Islamic leader. Cologne authorities had placed restrictions on Kaplan's movements about a year ago ordering him to report regularly to police, and opposition politicians demanded that an investigation be launched into how he escaped surveillance. "The authorities were watching, observing," lamented Bavarian state interior minister Guenther Beckstein "but that was just not the case."
Posted by: Steve 2004-05-27
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=34038