CZECH AUTHORITIES RELEASE SALIH MUSLIM. TURKEY SLAMS CZECH DECISION

Salih Muslim during an interview on the Egyptian Extra News TV, right after his release.

On February 27, a Czech court released of Salih Muslim, a former leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), according to Reuters. The Czech Authorities arrested Muslim on February 25 upon an official request from Turkey, which had accused him of “disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the Turkish state”.

Reuters reported that Salih Muslim had rejected all the Turkish accusations and had promised the Czech court that he will remain in the European Union (EU) territory, likely in EU member, Finland.

“Nobody was taking it (charges by Turkey) seriously, I didn’t know they would take it seriously here… First of all, I am a citizen of Syria, I am not a citizen of Turkey, second thing, I am a politician,” Muslim said, according to Reuters.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry released an official statement, in which it slammed the Czech authorities for releasing Salih Muslim and accused the Czech court of violating its responsibility to abide by the international law and to fight terrorism.

The Turkish Ministry of Justice took administrative steps to extradite Salih Muslim from Czech once he had been arrested. However, these efforts will likely fail now, due to the decision of the Czech court.

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