ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The radical Norway-based Kurdish preacher Mullah Krekar will reportedly be released on Wednesday, following his detention last week by the Norwegian police, as the Supreme Court ruled that he may be extradited to Italy where he faces terrorism charges.
“Allahu Akbar,” read a post on Krekar’s official Facebook page, the Arabic for ‘God is great’.
“Good news, his Excellency Mullah Krekar will now be released and his problem [the legal case] against him turned out to be a lie and baseless,” the post added.
Rudaw cannot independently confirm his release.
Mullah Krekar could be extradited to Italy to face terrorism charges after he lost an appeal to the Norwegian Supreme Court last Wednesday.
The Norwegian Justice Ministry were said to formalize the extradition process, the public broadcaster NRK reported last week.
He was arrested last Wednesday morning Norwegian time by the security forces in his home “under the justification that he may flee”, according to a Facebook post published on his official account.
Krekar is accused of having a hand in planning terrorist activities in Europe. He is the head of the Rawti Shax organization.
NRK also reported that Krekar’s lawyer planned to appeal the court’s decision.
Mullah Krekar was sentenced in March 2012 to 6 years in prison but was released in January 2015 after a judge reduced his sentence.
He has faced several legal charges in Norway, where he has lived since 1991 with his family.
Krekar, a flamboyant Kurdish Islamist in exile, is wanted in Kurdistan Region for terrorism charges dating back to late 1990s and early 2000s for founding the Kurdish jihadist group Ansar al-Islam. Back then that group declared an Islamist entity in the southern Kurdish towns of Biara and Tawela in the run up for the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
from Rudaw http://ift.tt/2g6xCZT
via Defense News
No comments: