ANKARA - Turkish Justice Minister Cemil Cicek has said, ''German Interior Minister Otto Schilly will come to Turkey in May. We will discuss extradition of Metin Kaplan to Turkey during his visit.''
In an interview with the A.A, Cicek said on Thursday, ''German Interior Minister Schilly will come to Turkey in May. We will discuss extradition of Kaplan to Turkey during Schilly's visit once again.''
''We have requested Germany many times to extradite Kaplan. During our meetings witj German officials, we brought the issue onto agenda. However, they put forward different reasons each time. Today, any of these reasons are not valid,'' Cicek added.
Metin Kaplan took over leadership of Cologne-based Association of Islamic Organisations and Communities on his father's death in 1995. He was sentenced to four-year imprisonment in Germany for incitement to murder his rival Ibrahim Sofu. He was released after serving his imprisonment term. His calls for the violent overthrow of the secular Turkish state and its replacement with an Islamic regime have made him a wanted man in Turkey.
Although Germany has banned activities of the Association of Islamic Organisations and Communities, it did not extradite Kaplan to Turkey because of the presence of death sentence in the Turkish Constitution. The death sentence was lifted in Turkey under a package of adjustment to the European Union.
(UK-AY) 29.04.2004