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November 30, 2005
Turkey: Islamist Caliph of Cologne Faces Retrial
News today from BBC, the Jurists Paperchase, from Euronews and Reuters AlertNet reports that Metin Kaplan, the self-styled "Caliph of Cologne" who was given a life sentence on June 20 this year in Turkey, has been told by a Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals that he will face retrial.
The life sentence was originally given to Kaplan for his alleged plans to fly an aircraft into the mausoleum of the founder of secular Turkey, Kemal Ataturk, and for plotting to kill members of the country's ruling elite.
Kaplan had been deported to Turkey from Germany only when the Turkish authorities abandoned the death penalty. We described how members of the group which he founded, the Kalifastaat or Caliphate State were recently the subjects of raids in Germany on November 23. A mosque was also searched. Kaplan had been an imam at a mosque before his deportation.
The aims of the Kalifastaat and its predecessor organisation the Hilafet Devleti ("Islamic State") were to establish an Islamic state in Turkey, under Sharia law. The Hilafet Devleti had been founded by Kaplan's father. Both organisations were ruled illegal in Germany in 2001, after the events of 9/11.
Kaplan had served a four year jail term in Germany from 1999 to 2003 after he killed a rival, Halil Ibrahim Sofu.
The Supreme Court in Turkey decided to quash Kaplan's original verdict because of "deficiencies in procedures and investigation". The chief prosecutor in Turkey has the right to appeal against the ruling.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 30, 2005 10:01 PM
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