German-Syrian Mamoun Darkazanli Posted on 07/18/2005 8:54:46 AM PDT by Stultis
July 18, 2005
German-Syrian Mamoun Darkazanli
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Germany says terror arrest illegal MIM: If the Germans don't want to hand over one of their citizens, why don't they start proceedings to strip him of his citizenship instead of releasing him to continue his terrorist activity with the use of a German passport? http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/18/germany.extradite/ BERLIN, Germany -- Germany's high court has ordered the release of a Syrian-born German man whom Spain wanted extradited in connection with the 2003 Madrid bombings. The Federal Constitutional Court ruled Monday it would be illegal to extradite Mamoun Darkazanli, a Hamburg-based businessman, because the country's constitution bars Germans from being extradited against their will. "He must be set free following this verdict, which is a blow for the government in its efforts and fight against terrorism," German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries told The Associated Press. The ruling effectively strikes down Germany's agreement to adopt last year's European Union accord on extradition. Darkazanli, 46, was arrested in October on Spain's warrant. Investigators there have said he provided logistical and financial help in the Madrid bombings. He was also allegedly seen in a 1999 wedding video with two of the September 11 suicide pilots -- Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah -- who lived and studied in Hamburg. Germany's post-war constitution has frustrated anti-terror efforts in the past, with strict provisions against surveillance and extradition to prevent the abuses and atrocities of the country's Nazi era. An EU spokesman said the arrest warrant would survive the German court ruling, AP reported. Spokesman Martin Selmayr told AP the ruling did not declare the European arrest warrant unconstitutional, but merely the German national law that implements it. "From a first reading, it's a judgment that declares null and void the German implementation law, not the European arrest warrant," Selmayr said in Brussels. Darkazanli appeared on U.S. suspect lists after September 11, but has denied any links to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. German police questioned him shortly after the attacks on New York, but he was freed for lack of evidence and continued to live in Hamburg. Darkazanli is among 41 suspects, including bin Laden, indicted by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who has been investigating al Qaeda, AP said. ---------- Top German court rules EU arrest warrant invalid
By Diana Niedernhoefer KARLSRUHE, Germany (Reuters) - Germany's top court blocked Berlin's extradition of a suspected al Qaeda financier to Spain, ruling on Monday that a key instrument in the European Union's campaign against terrorism was unconstitutional. The Federal Constitutional Court ordered the release of Mamoun Darkazanli, a German-Syrian fighting his handover under an EU arrest warrant, a new instrument the court said Germany had not implemented correctly. The ruling could wreck the warrant, one of the bloc's most significant security initiatives since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 and introduced last year to speed up the handover of suspects and boost cooperation in the fight against terrorism. Darkazanli, a businessman with dual Syrian and German nationality, has been in custody in Hamburg since last October. He has been accused by the United States of financing al Qaeda and was investigated by German authorities for links to the Hamburg cell that led the attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. He has not been charged in Germany. Darkazanli was one of 35 people charged by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon in September 2003 with belonging to al Qaeda. Garzon's charge sheet says Darkazanli carried out "logistics support and financing activity" for the network, including the purchase of a cargo vessel that he and two others bought in December 1993 for its leader Osama bin Laden. However, the dual national could not be extradited since German law prohibits the handover of its own citizens. The court argued that the warrant infringed rules governing freedom from extradition and said Germany's implementation contravened basic rights. Without a new German law incorporating the EU arrest warrant, Germans could not be handed over to other countries, the court said. |
Civil rights be damned - he's in Germany. We should have hit squads to deal with situations like this. It's war, after all.
Bombing a city near you.
Would we extradite an American citizen to Germany under similar conditions? Just a question, I don't know the answer...
Would that it were politically feasible, but look at the shiite-fit that erupted over a mere snatch 'n grab operation in Italy (even though Italian intelligence agreed to it in advance).
The German high court would do well to heed the following from the U.S. high court: "The Constitution is not a suicide pact" - Justice Robert H. Jackson
Find him and kill him.
Although my heritage is part German, it pains me to say that Germany could fall to the Pennsylvania Boy Scouts and the CAP.
Although I suppose France could nuke the Bosch.
BTW, thanks again Germany!
Then he should be paid a visit by Mr. Doubletap. ASAP
Where's Treadstone when you need it?
If they could convict one, we would, provided that the suspect isn't wanted here as well.
But I can't imagine a situation where such a person would not be on our wanted list.
My thoughts exactly. Isn't there anyone at the CIA willing to funnel money to black ops and risk a jail sentence if they're caught? What kind of limp wristed spies have we got these days?
So, **next** time (as here, for instance), we don't tell the silly b&st&rds, and just take the SOB out.
But if (hypothetically) he's found floating in the Rhine, his throat plugged with bacon and swastikas carved into his forehead, whom will most people suspect?
Every time I think I've read the "Stupidest Sentence Ever", some new and improved asinine statement wanders before my eyes.
Shades of the Munich Olympics. The Germans let the Palistinians go then as well.
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