Court Delays al Qaeda Extradition

A German court has pushed back the extradition of an al Qaeda suspect to Spain by three months while the Constitutional Court reconsiders his case. According to a court spokeswoman on Monday, Mamoun Darkazanli, a businessman with dual Syrian and German citizenship, has been held since last October on accusations of providing logistical and financial support to al Qaeda. He was scheduled to be deported to Spain, which issued a European Union arrest warrant for him, but Darkazanli’s lawyers filed a last-minute bid to stop the extradition. Germany’s highest court is now deliberating whether EU arrest warrants are in keeping with the country’s basic law. Prior to the introduction of EU arrest warrants, Germany did not extradite its own nationals.