Germany Won't Seek to Extradite Sept 11 Suspect

Sep 15, 2002

BERLIN  - German Interior Minister Otto Schily said Sunday Berlin would not pursue the extradition of key al Qaeda suspect Ramzi Binalshibh and would bow to Washington's wishes to try him.

Schily told ARD television that since Germany was not directly affected by the alleged crimes of the accused, arrested last week in Pakistan, it would not seek his extradition. "The extradition attempt of the U.S. has precedence," he said.

 Saturday Schily said Germany, who had an international arrest warrant out on Binalshibh, wanted to extradite him, but acknowledged the need to come to an agreement with other countries that also had an interest in the suspect.

 Binalshibh, wanted for his alleged role in planning the September 11 attacks, is one of the most important al Qaeda members to be taken into custody over the past year.

 Officials say he was a very prominent member of an al Qaeda cell in the German city of Hamburg and a roommate of Mohamed Atta -- the suspected ringleader of the September 11 hijackers.

 U.S. officials have said the Yemeni national, who was refused a visa into the United States at least four times before September 11, 2001, wanted to join the 19 hijackers involved in the attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

 Binalshibh's capture came just days after a journalist with al-Jazeera Arabic satellite television said he interviewed the Yemeni in or around Karachi. Binalshibh and another key al Aqeda member reportedly affirmed that Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites) was personally involved in planning the U.S. attacks that killed more than 3,000 people.

 Schily and other European interior ministers met U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft  in Copenhagen Saturday to discuss U.S. concerns that the lack of extradition agreements with a number of EU states, who object to its use of the death penalty, could prevent it bringing suspects to trial.

 Germany, which has played a central role in the investigation into the September 11 attacks as three of the suicide hijackers had lived in the country, has refused to release evidence against another suspect unless Washington gives assurances it will not be used to impose the death penalty.

 German investigators reportedly have evidence linking September 11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui to Mohammed Atta.

 Four of the six conspiracy charges Moussaoui faces in a U.S. court carry a possible death sentence, a punishment banned in European Union  states, including Germany.