Yeah, right!!! Sure looks like a tit for tat to me and many others. Why couldn't they wait a few months to release him, to avoid all appearances of complicity? Boy, these Euros make my blood boil.
Simple: the state of Hesse and not the federal level is responsible for the release. And anybody knowing Germany isn´t wondering about 19 years imprisonment for murder (see post 105). It´s obvious that there´s no connection to the Iraq hostage case.