Berlin, May 27: A German court has turned down a request to extradite a jailed Islamic militant leader to Turkey, where he is wanted on treason charges, a spokesman said today. The superior state court in Duesseldorf ruled that cleric Muhammed Metin Kaplan's extradition was inadmissible, spokesman Hans-Joseph Scholten said. He refused to elaborate on the reasons.
Kaplan was to be released from prison later today.
He served a four-year sentence in Germany for incitement in the killing of a rival cleric in Berlin in 1997. His jail sentence ended in March, but he remained in custody pending an extradition ruling.
Turkey requested Kaplan's extradition in January _ a request backed by the German government.
German authorities used laws passed after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that scrapped protections for religious groups to ban Kaplan's organisation, Caliphate State. The group openly called for the overthrow of Turkey's secular government and its replacement with an Islamic state.
Interior minister Otto Schily has described the organisation as a ``breeding ground'' for terrorists, though he said it has no links to al-Qaida or other international terrorist groups. Bureau Report