German court blow to EU fight against terrorism
A key EU instrument to fight terrorism has been dealt a blow by a German court which barred the extradition of a suspected al-Qaeda financier to Spain.
A report in the Financial Times says the Federal Constitutional Court ordered the release of Mamoun Darkazanli, a German-Syrian fighting his handover under an EU arrest warrant, a new instrument the court said Germany had not implemented correctly. The court said the arrest warrant, introduced last year to speed up the handover of suspects and boost co-operation in the fight against terrorism, was unconstitutional. Darkazanli has been accused by the US of financing al-Qaeda. He was one of 35 people charged by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon in September 2003 with belonging to al Qaeda. Full report on the Financial Times site