Turkey has sought 81 people’s extradition since coup attempt: Germany

ISTANBUL

Turkey has sought the extradition of 81 people from Germany since the July 2016 coup attempt, Deutsche Welle (DW) reported on Oct. 23, citing the German Justice Ministry’s response to an inquiry from the parliamentary group of the Left Party.

The Justice Ministry did not provide information on how many of those requests were based on terrorism charges, or whether Berlin complied with the requests.

Most of those whose extraditions were requested are accused of crimes including murder and injury, according to the report. Only eight of the 60 individuals who Turkey asked Germany to extradite up to February were sought on terror charges.

Turkey has repeatedly accused Germany of harboring thousands of suspects allegedly involved in the failed coup attempt on the night of July 15, 2016, which left more than 200 people dead including soldiers and civilians.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in November last year that Ankara has already requested more than 4,000 suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also repeatedly expressed frustration at Berlin’s failure to handover suspected criminals.

“I’ve given Germany 4,500 files on the PKK but we have not received any feedback on any of the 4,500 files,” Erdoğan said on Oct. 19 during a speech in Istanbul.