ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Norway-based Kurdish radical preacher Mullah Krekar could be extradited to Italy to face terrorism charges after he lost an appeal to the Norwegian Supreme Court on Wednesday.
The Norwegian Justice Ministry will now formalize the extradition process, the public broadcaster NRK reported.
He was arrested 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 on Wednesday.
Krekar is accused of having a hand in planning terrorist activities in Europe. He is the head of the organization Rawti Shax.
NRK also reported that Krekar’s lawyer plans 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 when he founded the Kurdish jihadist group Ansar al-Islam, and declared a caliphate-like entity in the southern Kurdish towns of Biara and Tawela in the run up for the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
The US army demolished Ansar al-Islam strongholds in Biara and Tawela with airstrikes and Tomahawk cruise missiles during the 2003 war and dismantled the group’s network.
Kurdish authorities say Ansar al-Islam were responsible for killing and torturing numbers of locals in the area who opposed the caliphate and want to try its leader Krekar for the charges.
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