COLOGNE – Cologne’s administrative court Wednesday approved a city application to expel radical Islamic figure Metin Kaplan to Turkey.
The Cologne court said that Kaplan, the self-appointed “Caliph of Cologne”, no longer has a residence permit to live in Germany.
The final say in the expulsion comes on 26 May at the superior court for the state of North Rhine-Westfalia.
Kaplan, who wants to establish an Islamic caliphate to rule Turkey from Istanbul, previously served a four-year jail term for incitement to murder after unidentified followers killed a renegade member of his sect.
German Interior Minister Otto Schily banned Kaplan’s Caliphate State movement in December 2001 and has visited Ankara to coordinate joint plans to put Kaplan in a Turkish jail cell.