The Kurdish politician Kenan Ayaz is to be extradited from Cyprus to Germany. A local court in the south of the island approved the German extradition request for the 49-year-old on Wednesday. He will be handed over to the German judiciary, ruled Michalis Papathanasiou, judge at the Larnaca District Court. Contrary to the assumption of Ayaz's lawyers, the court did not assume that he could be deported from Germany to Turkey.

Kenan Ayaz is a long-time activist of the Kurdish movement and was imprisoned in Turkey for twelve years because of his political identity. He has been living in the Greek part of Cyprus since 2013 and is a recognised refugee. On 15 March, he was arrested at Larnaca airport when he wanted to travel to Sweden for a family visit.

Ayaz was arrested on the basis of a German arrest warrant on charges of "membership in a foreign terrorist organisation" - meaning the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). At today's hearing, his defence lawyer complained that this might have been a commitment to the rights of the oppressed Kurdish people and cited several reasons why extradition would be inadmissible under Cypriot law and thus unlawful. The lawyer said it was also absurd that Ayaz was being held in extradition custody for something for which he had been granted political asylum in Cyprus.

Ayaz himself spoke of "indestructible relations" between Germany and the fascist Turkish state and rejected the accusation of terrorism by the German judiciary. "Playing the terror card is part of the strategy to discredit the resistance against the oppression and discrimination of Kurds," Ayaz said. His defence lawyer has announced that he will appeal against the extradition permit to a higher court. The Cypriot criminal court must then decide on the facts of the case within ten days.