The Koln Administrative Court decided not to extradite reactionary activist and so-called “caliph” Metin Kaplan to Turkey, on the grounds that, if extradited, Kaplan would not be fairly tried. Bavaria’s Interior Minister Gunther Beckstein said that the decision regarding Kaplan was a scandal. Beckstein said that Germany could not explain why this fundamental Islamist would not be extradited even though capital punishment was abolished in Turkey.

Federal Interior Minister Otto Schily is also reportedly insistent on extraditing Kaplan.