BERLIN, Sept 15: The United States has priority in seeking the extradition of Ramzi bin al-Shaiba arrested in Pakistan, German Interior Minister Otto Schily said on Sunday.

“If, as it appears, the US seeks his extradition, then they have the priority over us,” Schily told DPA. “Naturally the US is most strongly affected by the terrible attacks. It goes without saying that they must have first access,” he said, adding that Germany would try to have Ramzi extradited if Washington did not.

Schily said Berlin’s position was “based on a sense of fairness and solidarity with the US.”

Germany issued an international warrant for bin al-Shaiba’s arrest in September last year, and Schily said on Saturday that Berlin wanted to put him on trial.

“We obviously have an interest in seeing him extradited, but we have to reach an agreement with the other countries,” Schily said in Copenhagen at a meeting of EU interior and justice ministers.—AFP