COLOGNE, Germany, Oct 12 (AFP) - German authorities moved Tuesday to expel to Turkey a leading Islamic extremist known as the Caliph of Cologne but a court ruling left the door open to a last-minute reprieve.
A spokeswoman for this western German city said that Metin Kaplan had been detained at an Internet cafe and brought to the international airport in nearby Duesseldorf where he was to board a plane for Turkey departing by 1830 GMT.
But she said Kaplan could still win an appeal.
"We intend to deport him today to Turkey but we could theoretically still be stopped by the courts," said the spokeswoman, Inge Schuermann.
The administrative court in Cologne had ruled earlier that despite an ongoing appeal, the 51-year-old Kaplan could still be expelled, ending a lengthy legal tug-of-war. But Kaplan still has a legal right to appeal his deportation based on a court ruling in July.
The federal government and the city of Cologne have been battling to kick Kaplan out of the country for more than a year but have been thwarted by court rulings arguing that he could face mistreatment if sent back to Turkey.
Turkey, which is predominantly Muslim, wants to put him on trial for attempting to overthrow its secular government, calling for a holy war and plotting to attack a shrine to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, modern Turkey`s founder.
Kaplan, who has appealed against his expulsion to a federal court, 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.