Mullah Krekar faces imprisonment on charges of terrorism

Norwegian police announced on Tuesday, July 16 the arrest of Mullah Krekar, leader of the Kurdish Ansar al-Islam group, which was active in Iraq and Iran, after being convicted in Italy of conspiracy to commit terrorism.

The Norwegian security service said that the terrorist Krekar was convicted in Italy of planning a terrorist act and was arrested on the basis of an arrest warrant.

Mullah Krekar, 63, has been a refugee in Norway since 1991. His real name is Najmaddin Faraj Ahmad. The Italian authorities accused him of leading the Rawti Shax group, a network that has links to ISIS and is suspected of involvement in planning the organization's attacks in the west.

A court in Bolzano, northern Italy, sentenced him in absentia to 12 years in prison for "terrorist conspiracy" and sentenced five other defendants as well.

According to Italian prosecutors, Krekar, who was based in Norway, is the founder of Rawti Shax, a European network aimed at overthrowing the Kurdistan government through violence. Italian lawyer Marco Vernello said Krekar, who has denied the allegations, plans to appeal.

Krekar has been convicted in several cases in Norway, including threatening Prime Minister Erna Solberg. He also praised the terrorist attack in 2015 on the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo, and Norwegian officials have long wanted to deport him from the country.

Krekar founded the now-decadent group Ansar al-Islam, which aimed at establishing an Islamist caliphate in Iraqi Kurdistan. It had merged with the ISIS organization in 2014.

Mullah Krekar believes that ISIS can achieve the ambitions and dreams of his group. He said in a statement in 2015 that "ISIS is not something strange; it is the only element that can fulfill our aspirations and our dreams."

Moreover, Krekar attacked those who calling for resistance to ISIS, describing them as "cowards." He accused them of following orders from the United States and Shiite Iran, calling on ISIS to appoint a "courageous person to fight infidels and real leadership."

Kurdish authorities say Ansar al-Islam was responsible for the killing and torture of many opponents of the caliphate, but Kurdish political parties with political power were said to have pushed the authorities in Kurdistan to end the charges against Krekar and demand his return.

"We know that Mullah Krekar's brother was in talks with the authorities in Kurdistan to make [legal] arrangements for his return," Mohammad Hakim, spokesman for the Islamic Society of Kurdistan, said in 2015. "We would be happy to have Krekar among us if he chose to continue his struggle within our party."