Stuttgart, Germany - The German man suspected of attempting to blackmail former international supermodel Cindy Crawford has handed himself into police, prosecutors in Stuttgart said on Tuesday. Police in Nuertingen, near Stuttgart, said they had questioned a man named by US authorities as Edis Kayalar, 26, in connection with the attempted blackmail. He has been remanded in custody, pending a court appearance later Tuesday.
The suspect is thought to have repeatedly contacted the Crawford family after having been in the US, and threatened to publish pictures of their then-7-year-old daughter in a bound and gagged pose, in what the family said was a "cops and robbers" game with a nanny.
Police said that to their knowledge no payment had ever been made by Crawford or her husband Rande Gerber.
Kayalar, who is already known to German police because of a drugs and theft record, has not denied the blackmail, prosecutors said.
If the suspect, who is thought to have demanded 100,000 dollars (67,000 euros) not to send the pictures to tabloid newspapers, is prosecuted he could face a fine or a jail term.
Kayalar was taken into custody in the US several months ago for an immigration violation and deported to Germany.
A spokeswoman for the Stuttgart prosecutor said that the suspect, who has Turkish family roots, had arrived from Turkey on Sunday, where he had apparently feared arrest and extradition to the US.
The suspect is thought to have stolen the photograph from the home of the Crawfords' nanny. On Sunday police searched the suspect's home.
