Radical Turk Freed in Germany

KARLSRUHE, Germany —  German authorities released a Turkish man Tuesday two weeks after detaining him at Frankfurt airport on suspicion of plotting “severe acts of violence” and belonging to an Islamic “terrorist” organization, federal prosecutors said.

An investigating judge had ordered that an arrest warrant against him be lifted because allegations against the 29-year-old man, Harun Aydin, had proved unfounded, a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor’s office said.

Aydin is a leading member of a Cologne-based Islamic group whose leader, Metin Kaplan, is serving a prison term for calling for the murder of a rival religious leader.

Police had taken Aydin off a flight to Tehran after finding suspicious items in his luggage, including a mask, camouflage clothing, a chemical weapon protection suit and a CD-ROM that contained a training program for fighters wanting to wage a “holy war.”

They also found materials to produce an explosive detonator, the prosecutor’s office said. The spokeswoman did not say why the suspicions were unwarranted.

Aydin’s lawyer said his client only wanted to fly to Tehran for a book fair and had agreed to take a bag for another Turkish passenger who had excess baggage.

The German government has said that members of the Al Qaeda network associated with Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden or similar groups might still be in Germany.

Germany is a focal point of the investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. because at least three of the suspected hijackers had recently studied in Hamburg.