SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: In 1980, Moammar Gadhafi tried to pressure the West German government to extradite Libyan dissidents or allow them to be killed on German soil, according to German Foreign Ministry documents that have recently come to light. Chancellor Helmut Schmidt refused the demand.In 1980, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi demanded that the West German government extradite opponents of his regime living in Germany, or allow him to have them liquidated, according to German Foreign Ministry documents from the period.
Gadhafi threatened that if then-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt refused, he would take revenge by ordering "countermeasures" against German citizens living in Libya.
The written demand was handed to the then-German ambassador to Libya, Günter Held, in Tripoli on May 27, 1980, according to the documents, which have now been published by the Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History on behalf of the Foreign Ministry.
The West German government should decide, Gadhafi's note said, whether it wanted "to cooperate with traitors or with the Libyan people." It added that the request applied only to "a relatively small number of people." » | cro/SPIEGEL | Tuesday, March 22, 2011
