The fight within
In fits and starts, European countries are learning to co-operate more closely, and to share intelligence, in the battle against terrorism
THE decision embarrassed one country, and irritated others intensely. And, with fears of fresh terrorist attacks mounting all over Europe, the timing could not have been less propitious. On July 18th Germany's highest court ruled that a German citizen of Syrian origin, Mamoun Darkazanli, could not be extradited to Spain, where a prosecutor wants to try him as an “interlocutor and assistant” of Osama bin Laden and his network. The suspect has a history of close legal shaves. Last November, he escaped extradition after a court ruling, issued as he was strapped into a helicopter to start his journey to Spain. After the latest decision, lamented by Brigitte Zypries, Germany's justice minister, as a “blow to the government in its fight against terrorism”, he was yet again freed in Hamburg.
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “The fight within”
From the July 23rd 2005 edition
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