Flanders Liberal Party deputy Hugo Coveliers said that...

Flanders Liberal Party deputy Hugo Coveliers said that Fehriye Erdal, 23, a woman wanted for the alleged killing of businessman Ozdemir Sabanci in 1996, should be extradited to Turkey. Erdal was arrested on September 26, 1999 in Belgium. "If Erdal is not extradited, a big diplomatic tension will start between Turkey and Belgium," Coveliers said. Coveliers said that he went to Turkey together with the Belgian Parliament Speaker Herman De Croo the previous April, and Turkey assured them that Erdal would not be executed. The Turkish authorities accused her of being a member of an illegal organization, the DHKC-P and had officially conveyed its request for extradition of Erdal to the Belgian Foreign Ministry on 3rd November 1999. In April, the Belgian Supreme Court of Appeals announced that Turkey's extradition request of Fehriye Erdal was right and legal, confirming former decisions made by the Bruges Court and the Gent Appeals Court.