A top Spanish court has announced that it will no longer handle fast-track extraditions for Germany after that country refused to hand over a suspected al-Qaida member to Madrid.
The court, in Madrid, announced the policy change Wednesday, saying it will now revert to the the old, much slower way of processing extradition to Germany.
Spain's move comes after Germany's top court in July ordered the release of Mamoun Darkazanli, a dual German-Syrian citizen indicted in Spain as an al-Qaida suspect. Germany's Federal Constitutional court said the EU arrest warrant for Mr. Darkazanli violated the country's constitution.
Spain is holding 50 suspects wanted by Germany on charges such as fraud, drug trafficking and robbery.
The Spanish court says it will give German authorities 40 days to present standard extradition documents. If Germany fails to do so, Spain will release the suspects.
Some information in this story provided by AP.
