GERMAN COURT ORDERS AL QAEDA MAN'S RELEASE

Europe is one massive bureaucratic cluster fuck:

Germany's highest court has ordered the release of a suspected top Al Qaeda operative, citing objections to a new European Union arrest warrant that would have allowed his extradition to Spain.

The federal Constitutional Court has ruled that handing over Syrian-German businessman Mamoun Darkazanli to Spain as permitted under the EU policy would violate Germany's basic law.

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries has condemned the court's decision as "another setback for the German Government in the fight against international terrorism".

The European Union's executive arm, the European Commission, has voiced regret that Germany has failed to implement the arrest warrant.

It has called for it to bring its national legislation into line with EU policy.

Spain accuses Darkazanli, 46, of being Osama bin Laden's "permanent interlocutor and assistant" in Europe.

Why, exactly, was this guy released?

The Karlsruhe-based court found that the EU arrest warrant offered insufficient legal protection for German citizens and must now be implemented with a new German law that allows all extradition orders to be reviewed by German judges.

The ruling will mean that all German citizens being held for extradition within the EU must be released until the new legislation is passed.

Gotta get that paperwork right, guys.