Terror suspect arrested
December 21, 2009
Police arrested a man wanted for suspected terrorism since 2003 on Tuesday of last week after he turned himself in, federal prosecutors said Monday.
The 35-year-old German citizen of Turkish descent, identified as Sinan B., was alledgedly a leader in the Turkish far-left wing organization DHKP-C in the 1990s.
"Sinan B. is believed to have helped mount two firebombings against Turkish banks in Duisburg on March 21, 1995 and in Cologne on April 14, 1995," the federal prosecutor's office in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe said in a statement.
He is also suspected of belonging to a commando that sought to liquidate a Hamburg-based wing of rival militant group Demvrimci Sol in 1997.
Group accused of killing dozens in attacks
DHKP-C, or the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party-Front, has been active since 1976 and aims to replace the current Turkish government with a Marxist-Leninist regime.
It has killed dozens in its armed struggle against the Turkish state, including two retired generals, a former justice minister and a prominent businessman, according to Turkish authorities.
Ankara, the European Union and the United States all consider the group a terrorist organization. Germany banned the organization in 1998, and the following year the group's now-deceased leader Dursun Karatas announced it would no longer carry out attacks on German soil.
German authorities had been searching for Sinan B. for years in and outside of Germany. It was not immediately clear why he chose to turn himself in.
acb/dpa/AFP/AP
Editor: Ranty Islam