Germany May Soon Extradite Terror Suspect
A suspected top aide to Osama bin Laden, the Saudi millionaire accused of organizing the deadly bombings at U.S. embassies in Africa this summer, will soon be extradited to the United States from Germany, a government spokesman said Saturday.
A report by the Hamburg-based weekly Welt am Sonntag said Mamduh Mahmud Salim, who is jailed in Munich, would be extradited Monday. However, the spokesman in Bonn, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he could not confirm when the extradition would take place.
Salim, 40, has been jailed since his arrest in Bavaria three months ago on a U.S. warrant. A Munich state court approved his extradition Nov. 27.
The Federal Constitutional Court threw out Salim’s appeal Dec. 11, and the Justice Ministry said extradition would be approved when the U.S. government gives assurances that Salim would not face the death penalty, which is forbidden by the German Constitution.
U.S. officials claim that Salim is Bin Laden’s finance chief and have charged him in New York with murder conspiracy and the use of weapons of mass destruction in an international plot to kill U.S. citizens.
Three other alleged accomplices of Bin Laden already are jailed in the United States.
The Aug. 7 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
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