A Turkish Islamist movement which insists that it is committed to democratic values won a court case in Germany Wednesday against authorities who had described it as violence-prone, dpa reported.
The international movement, Milli Gorus, which operates multiple mosques, was angered that a German anti-subversion agency in Baden-Wuerttemberg state published an annual report in 2001 describing it as extremist.
Milli Gorus denies that its brand of political Islam is subversive or anti-democratic.
An administrative tribunal in the German city of Leipzig ordered that intelligence assessments about Milli Gorus be expunged from the government report because they had not been legally proved.
The state argued that it could not produce the undercover agent in court because this would betray his identity, but judges said the unproven assessment was a breach of the mosque group's rights.
Mustafa Yeneroglu, deputy general secretary of Milli Gorus, welcomed the ruling, telling Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that Germany's 16 states varied in their assessments, with others not regarding Milli Gorus as a threat.
But Heribert Rech, interior minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg, said surveillance of Milli Gorus would continue. "We'll not allow them to create an impression of being harmless. Their aims are not compatible with the constitution," he said.