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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Taliban minister fights deportation

A former Taliban minister who was sent out of Norway last year is now trying to return, legally fighting his deportation in an Oslo courtroom through the same lawyer who’s been representing the controversial Islamic cleric Mullah Krekar.

Abdul Rauf Mohammad was deported after authorities determined he was a danger to fundamental national interests. He had come to Norway as a refugee and was granted asylum and residence permission. He supported himself by driving a bus in Drammen, but 13 years after his arrival, the government and monarch expelled him with no right of appeal.

He could, however, sue the state from afar and that’s what he’s doing, with the help of Krekar attorney Brynjar Meling. Newspaper Aftenposten reported this week that the authorities have denied Mohammad entry to testify at his own trial, apparently fearing they would not be able to send him out of the country again.

The state’s case against him, though, is at least in part based on classified information from police intelligence unit PST, to which Meling is not allowed access. The case bears similarities to the case against Krekar, with the monarch having to appoint, in a session of the Council of State, a special attorney to look after Mohammad’s interests in Meling’s absence.

The Council of State did so, with attorney Harald Stabell named to represent Mohammad while attorney Christian Reusch represents the government, alone in the courtroom with Judge Jannicke Johannesen when the classified evidence is presented.

Mohammad’s case got underway on Wednesday.

newsinenglish.no staff

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