Posted on 09/15/2002 9:14:42 AM PDT by HAL9000
Berlin ready to give up the extradition of Ramzi Ben Al-Shaiba in front of the USA
Sunday September 15, 2002 - 15h17 GMT
BERLIN, 15 seven (AFP) - Germany will give up at the request of extradition of Yéménite Ramzi Ben Al-Shaiba, stopped Wednesday in Pakistan, if the United States claims them-also its extradition, declared Sunday the Minister German for the Interior Otto Schily.
"If, as that seems to be the case, the United States claims its extradition, they will take precedence over us then", indicated Mr. Schily to the German agency DPA.
"Because the United States was touched hard by the terrible attacks. That goes from oneself that they have the priority. It is not that if it renonçaient there that we would come into play ", added the minister, qualifying this decision of "offre of justice and solidarity with regard to the United States ".
During the informal meeting of the European Ministers for Justice and Interior in Copenhagen Saturday, in which the American Minister for Justice John Ashcroft took part, the German minister had affirmed that Germany wished the extradition of Yéménite, considered like one of the "brains" of the attacks of September 11 2001 in the United States.
"We will make a request for extradition because we (already) launched an international warrant for arrest", Mr. Schily had declared, judging however "possible" that there are other requests for extradition subjected by other countries and that a decision is then made "according to factual criteria's".
Ben Al-Shaiba was in Germany a companion of barrack room of Mohammed Atta, the main thing responsible for the diversions of plane in the United States, according to official sources'.
An international warrant for arrest had been delivered in September 2001 by German justice against this Yéménite suspected of "appartenance to a terrorist association and murder of several thousands of people ".
Germany to ask for extradition of key al-Qaida official arrested in Pakistan
Schily said he would like to see Binalshibh tried in Germany, where he was believed to be part of the cell of hijackers that plotted the Sept. 11 attacks in Hamburg. "Germany will ask for the extradition," Schily said.
| Germany Won't Seek Pakistan Suspect |
Story Filed: Sunday, September 15, 2002 1:57 PM EDT
BERLIN (AP) -- The German interior minister said Sunday the government had dropped plans to ask Pakistan to extradite suspected Sept. 11 planner Ramzi Binalshibh, avoiding a potential conflict with the United States, which wants to take custody of the alleged terrorist
Otto Schily said that given the ``terrible attacks of Sept. 11 occurred in New York and Washington, it goes without saying that Americans have priority for his extradition.''
Germany has an international arrest warrant for Binalshibh charging him with more than 3,000 counts of murder for allegedly conspiring in the city of Hamburg with hijacker Mohamed Atta and other Sept. 11 plotters to attack the United States.
On Saturday, after learning of Binalshibh's arrest in Pakistan last week, Schily said he would like to see the 30-year-old Yemeni brought back to Germany for trial.
The United States has not issued any public indictment against Binalshibh, but he is named as an unindicted coconspirator in the case of Zacharias Moussaoui, the designated 20th hijacker who was arrested before Sept. 11.
U.S. officials on Sunday said they would work with Pakistani authorities to take custody of Binalshibh.
Tensions between Germany and the United States have been high recently, with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder being increasingly outspoken in opposing a U.S. attack on Iraq.
Had Binalshibh been extradited to Germany it could have caused more conflict between the allies, as Germany -- like other European Union countries -- generally refuses to turn over suspects to a country where they could face the death penalty.
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