Merkel’s German Government “Deliberately Helped” Muslim Terrorist Escape American Justice, U.S. Attorney General Says
https://www.theisraelwire.com/2019/02/10/merkels-german-government-deliberately-helped-muslim-terrorist-escape-american-justice-u-s-attorney-general-says.html
The United States has accused the German government of letting a convicted terrorist escape American justice. Turkish national Adem Yilmaz, responsible for the murder of two U.S. servicemen, was deported to Turkey despite an American extradition request to face trial in a New York court.
“Adem Yilmaz is responsible for the deaths of U.S. servicemembers,” U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell said on Thursday. “This failure to extradite him to the United States violates the terms and spirit of our Extradition Treaty.”
Yilmaz, who served eleven years in German prison for the foiled 2007 terror plot to target U.S. citizens and facilities, including the Ramstein air base, was also behind the 2008 suicide bombing in Afghanistan that killed two U.S. servicemen and injured 11 others.
“We are gravely disappointed by Germany’s decision to deport a dangerous terrorist — Adem Yilmaz — to Turkey, rather than to extradite him to the United States to face justice for his complicity in the murder of two American servicemen,” acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said in a statement. “The German government deliberately helped Yilmaz escape justice by placing him on a plane to Turkey,” he added.
German authorities defended the decision to reject the U.S. extradition request, saying they feared the violation of legal rights of the terrorist. “An extradition could have only occurred if the Americans said they would restrict the charges to crimes not already punished,” a spokesperson for the Frankfurt court told The Associated Press.
The German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported:
The United States sharply criticized Germany on Thursday for deporting a convicted terrorist to Turkey despite an extradition request for him to stand trial in a New York court.
Adem Yilmaz was deported on Tuesday to his native Turkey after serving an 11-year prison sentence in Germany for planning a 2007 bomb plot to attack American citizens and facilities in Germany as part of an Islamist extremist cell.
The United States had requested his extradition to face terrorism charges for conspiring to carry out a 2008 suicide bombing near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that killed two US soldiers and injured 11 other people. Yilmaz, a member of a group called the Islamic Jihad Union, is also accused of carrying out attacks on US troops on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in 2006.
The 40-year-old terrorist, now safely back in Turkey, may never again face justice for his crimes. He was detained by the Turkish authorities for questioning upon arrival, but it was “unclear if he will face charges there,” German media reports said.
Yilmaz’s German accomplice, Fritz Gelowicz, who was serving a twelve-year sentence, was released early in August 2016—ahead of the U.S. presidential election—based on ‘good behavior.’
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government not only treats foreign terrorists with kid-gloves, it is also busy rolling out the red carpet for captive ISIS terrorists holding German citizenship. Berlin has been especially worried about the fate of the wives and children of German ISIS war criminals detained by the Kurdish fighters in Iraq and Syria. German officials have justified the diplomatic efforts to bring them back by citing “humanitarian considerations and Germany’s duty to protect its citizens.”
While the government is deeply sensitive of the rights of these Islamic terrorists, it has shown little compassion for the victims of their horrendous crimes. Out of a thousand German nationals who traveled to Syria and Iraq to fight for the Islamic State, more than three hundred have returned home so far. Only a handful of these genocidal terrorists have faced any sort of police interrogation, let alone jail time, in Germany, local media reports claim