Islamic Fundamentalist Released from German Prison
May 27, 2003
Following four years in a German prison, one of the country's most controversial Islamic figures has been released after narrowly escaping a deportation order to Turkey.
Metin Kaplan, the leader of the now-banned Islamic association "Caliphate State," left the Düsseldorf prison where he served four years for calling for the murder of a rival religious leader, according to a prison spokeswoman.
His freedom came after a court rejected the Turkish government's bid to have Kaplan extradited to his home country, where he is wanted for planning an attack on government officials.
An opposition parliamentarian called Kaplan's release a "failure" on the part of the German government and Interior Minister Otto Schily. In talks with his Turkish counterparts in March in Ankara, Schily said he was willing to ship out Kaplan but wanted a guarantee that he wouldn't be tortured.
A Turkish court accuses Kaplan of organizing a failed plot to crash a fuel-laden plane into the mausoleum of Turkish state founder Atatürk where government officials were gathering for a celebration in 1998.
No guarantee he wouldn't be tortured
A spokesperson for the German Higher Regional Court in Düsseldorf said there were "serious concerns" Kaplan would face torture by investigating authorities, despite the human rights legislation passed by the Turkish parliament last Fall.
The decision ensures Kaplan will remain Germany's problem for at least the time being. Kaplan's organization, an association of various Islamic groups, had long been suspected of spreading anti-Semitic, anti-American propaganda within Germany's Islamic community.
Free but without a flock
In 1996, when another "Caliph" established himself in Berlin, Kaplan told his organization's members that his "head needed to be cut off." When the other Caliph, Sofu, was shot in front of his family by unidentified assailants in 1999, German police promptly arrested Kaplan.
On Nov. 15, 2000, a German court sentenced Kaplan to four years in prison. Though his prison term ended on March 24, the deportation process kept him behind bars.
Now free, Kaplan will have to look around for something to do. In August 2002, Schily finally gathered enough evidence to ban his organization, the first such action since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.