UK judge dismisses Turkey extradition request of a Briton on terrorism claims

The Guardian said that district judge Shenagh Bayne at Westminster magistrates court has moved to dismiss the extradition request of Deniz Akgul, claiming that the petition was an abuse of process. According to the newspaper, the decision made by Bayne could set precedent for suspects with Kurdish ethnic backgrounds and will most likely have repercussions on international diplomacy.

The UK court was told that the 40 year-old Akgul was allegedly tortured by Turkish police in the early 1990s. He had also witnessed his grandfather receiving abuse from Turkish soldiers, his barrister, Ben Cooper of Doughty Street chambers said. After making intermittent visits to Turkey from his political asylum in 1994, Akgul was accused in 2010 of providing sheep, books, digital cameras and food to the leftist PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' party. Although he was convicted on all charges, Akgul reportedly appealed on the basis that the main witness of the prosecution had withdrawn all evidence that pointed him as the person behind the material support given to the PKK. The Guardian said Akgul has since left Turkey and that the country has began with its extradition proceedings in 2012. He was also retried and convicted last November without his presence in court under a new law.

Bayne's rule read, "There are reasonable grounds to believe that the Turkish authorities have acted in bad faith in respect of these proceedings and have gone to the extent of misleading this court ... I am satisfied that conduct amounting to an abuse of the extradition process has occurred and I would not accede to the request to extradite as a result."

Addressing Akgul's complex legal status, Bayne believed that the defendant did not deliberately absent himself from the trial Turkey has held in his absence, and that the Turkish government was aware of the fact that Akgul's extradition request has yet to be sorted out officially.

Tags

Deniz Akgul, Kurdistan Workers' party, PKK

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