Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 00:52:30 +0100 From: Jim <jim-AT-cag1.demon.co.uk> Subject: M-NEWS: LL08105 Jim H FWD U.K. is to Extradite Kani Yilmaz to Germ ------- Forwarded message follows ------- ## Nachricht zur Information/Dokumentation weitergeleitet ## Orig.-Abs. : akin-AT-kurdish.org (akin) UK court orders Kani Yilmaz extradited to Germany _________________________________________________________________ By Orya Sultan Halisdemir / Turkish Daily News London - Kani Yilmaz, spokesman of the ERNK, the political wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), is to be extradited to Germany sometime this week, his British legal team told TDN. The extradition order will be carried out this week following Home Secretary Jack Straw's decision to refuse Yilmaz's appeal against the order. The legal team's spokesperson said that the exact date for the extradition cannot be given due to security reasons. "We are hopeful that Yilmaz will be released shortly after being detained for the offenses he faces in Germany," the same spokesperson stated, quoting Yilmaz's solicitor in Germany. His legal team had appealed to Home Secretary Jack Straw at the end of June after exhausting all legal means to prevent his extradition to Germany. The team believed the change of government in the UK would make a big difference in deciding on the extradition order. Yilmaz was arrested on the order of the former Home Secretary Michael Howard on the grounds of national security on Oct. 26 on his way to address the British Parliament at the invitation of MPs. Later, on Nov. 10, 1994, the Home Secretary suspended deportation proceedings following a request for extradition by the Federal Republic of Germany for Yilmaz's alleged involvement in a wave of bombing attacks against various German and Turkish installations in Germany. The High Court of Justice had refused Yilmaz's appeal against the extradition on July 4 last year. In its judgement, the High Court had ruled that the wave of attacks against Turkey and Germany were politically motivated but could not come within the definition of "offences of a political character" because they were not exclusively directed towards changing the policies of the requesting state alone. The lawyers for Yilmaz had appealed to the House of Lords, which has a judicial function as the final court of appeal from the courts of all the constituent parts of the UK on points of law for civil and criminal cases. The appeal to the House of Lords was grounded on the legal point of whether the 1989 Extradition Act permits a dual purpose in its definition of a political offense; in this case that an offense can be of a political nature if it is directed at the German and Turkish states simultaneously. This is an attempt by the lawyers to mark Yilmaz's offenses as "political," in which case Yilmaz would have been able to apply for political asylum in Britain. ---- American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) 2623 Connecticut Avenue NW #1 Washington, DC 20008-1522 Tel: (202) 483-6444 Fax: (202) 483-6476 E-mail: akin-AT-kurdish.org Home Page: http://www.kurdistan.org ---- The American Kurdish Information Network (AKIN) provides a public serviceto foster Kurdish-American understanding and friendship *************************************** Solidariteitsgroep Turkije-Kurdistan Postbus 85306, 3508 AH, the Netherlands stk-AT-xs4all.nl http://www.xs4all.nl/~stk/index.html *************************************** Mailinglistinfo: petidomo-AT-ozgurluk.xs4all.nl
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