COPENHAGEN, Denmark - The Iraqi-Kurdish cleric Mullah Krekar has been released from police custody, after a Norwegian court found him not guilty of having threatened a fellow Kurd on television for burning the Quran. In October Krekar, whose real name is Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after threatening a fellow Kurd, Halmat Goran, during a television interview in Norway in February 2015. Krekar had earlier issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, against Goran when the latter published a video several years ago in which he torched the copy of the Quran. He had said on television that “the responsibility to execute the punishment belongs to the Muslim community.” The verdict was appealed, and Krekar was acquitted. After the acquittal, Krekar's lawyer Brynjar Meling told at a press conference: “He (Krekar) just interpreted what the Quran and Sharia law say about burning the Quran - that it deserves death. It was not his personal opinion or any threat.” The court gave no reason for its decision, Meling said. Despite the acquittal, the 59-year-old Muslim cleric still risks being extradited to Italy to face terror charges there. He is accused of having a hand in planning terrorist activities and is the is the head of the organization Rawti Shax. Krekar was born in Sulaimani in the Kurdistan Region and is the father of four children. He completed a master’s degree in Islamic studies in Pakistan and moved to Norway in 1991, where he established the Salafist jihadi group Ansar al-Islam in 1994. Since 2006, Krekar has been on the United Nations’ terror list. The Norwegian conservative party in 2002 raised the issue of national security and demanded his deportation. Iraq has demanded his extradition for trial, but that has been denied by Norway, which prohibits the expulsion of an individual without a guarantee against the death penalty or torture. In 2013, negotiations for Krekar’s deportation to Iraq failed, after Iraqi officials could not promise Norway that the cleric would not face torture or execution after deportation.
