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Italian police in Sardinia (symbolic photo)
Photo: localpic / IMAGO
A German arrested in Italy at Turkey's instigation has been released. A court in Sardinia had lifted the extradition warrant against Devrim A., said his lawyer Antonia von der Behrens of the dpa news agency.
According to the lawyer, A. was arrested at the beginning of August while on holiday on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia and has been under house arrest ever since. The basis for the arrest was therefore a Turkish search request at Interpol. Now the Berliner can travel back to Germany.
According to the lawyer, A., who is of Kurdish origin, was accused of membership in the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey, Europe and the United States. The lawyer described the proceedings as obviously politically motivated.
Her client was specifically accused of having supported the PKK in 2005 in northern Iraq in IT matters. At the time, he was working as a journalist in northern Iraq, but he had "no connections whatsoever to the PKK." A. is currently working as a translator and Kurdologist in Berlin. He only has German citizenship.
kfr/dpa