Deported militant flown to Turkey

Kaplan wants to overthrow Turkey's secular government

An Islamic militant is back in his native Turkey hours after a German court approved his extradition.

Officials say Metin Kaplan, known as the Caliph of Cologne, was flown to Istanbul shortly after his arrest.

Turkey wants to try him on treasons charges, related to a plot to crash a plane into the mausoleum of the founder of the modern Turkish state.

Kaplan has already served a four-year jail term in Germany for calling for the murder of a rival Islamic leader.

He heads a group called the Caliphate State, which wants to overthrow Turkey's secular government.

Police under fire

Kaplan was detained in an internet cafe in Cologne on Tuesday, taken to Dusseldorf airport and put on a private plane for Turkey.

He had been free since May 2003, and evaded arrest earlier in the year when an extradition warrant was issued for him. German police were heavily criticised for the failure.

The search was called off when an appeal against the order was lodged, and the suspect subsequently reappeared, reporting to police in line with earlier restrictions on his movements.

Lawyers for Kaplan, 51, had argued that he could face torture in Turkey and is too sick to travel.

But in its decision, a Cologne court ruled that these arguments were "outweighed by the public interest in an immediate deportation".