Mar 5, 2018

Turkey has asked German authorities to detain and extradite a prominent Syrian Kurdish leader who was briefly arrested in the Czech Republic last month, state media reported on Monday.

Saleh Muslim, the former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), was detained late on February 24 at an upmarket Prague hotel before a court released him last week.

Turkey says the PYD and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia are linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has been waging an insurgency inside Turkey since 1984.

The PKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

Turkish officials demanded the temporary arrest and extradition in connection with an attack in 2016, state news agency Anadolu reported.