Amnesty International (AI) welcomes a ruling from the Slovak Constitutional Court on June 26 that forbids the extradition of alleged terrorist Mustafa Labsi to Algeria, AI spokesperson Monika Navrátilová told the TASR newswire.
Navarátilová said that an earlier ruling by the Supreme Court that confirmed an extradition order violated Labsi's human rights and his right to protection, as the Court failed to consider the situation in Algeria, which poses a serious risk for him because he may be tortured there.
According to Navrátilová, the Constitutional Court has confirmed what AI has been attempting to establish: that Algerian diplomatic guarantees - that Labsi won't be given the death sentence and will be granted a new trial with the right to appeal to the Algerian Supreme Court - cannot be taken as standard. According to Slovak Justice Ministry spokesman Michal Jurči, the Ministry doesn't have any information on the Constitutional Court's latest ruling, and will therefore not comment on it.
Jurči told the TASR newswire that the ministry didn't want Slovakia to become a haven for terrorists.
"We view terrorism and organised crime as a cancer in society, and it is therefore necessary to fight it. Any sympathy with terrorists who kill civilians and innocent children is trampling on democratic principles and human rights," said Jurči.
Labsi, who is suspected of co-operating with international terrorist network al-Qaeda and planning a number of terrorist attacks, was arrested by the Slovak police on May 4, 2007, when attempting to cross the Slovak-Austrian border. He has been in custody in Bratislava ever since, pending the extradition ruling. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
