The latest trial of former guerrilla leader Mullah Krekar was disrupted after it got underway on Wednesday, when three men were caught filming the proceedings and thrown out of the courtroom.
Krekar has a habit of stirring controversy and the opening day of his trial, in which Krekar is charged with making threats, was no exception. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that Randi Hagen Spydevold, one of the lawyers representing one of those Krekar allegedly threatened, interrupted proceedings to say some spectators in the courtroom had done some filming that frightened her client.
Security guards were called, three men were escorted out of the courtroom and their mobile telephones were seized. One of them said he had traveled to Oslo from England and claimed he was filming for a Kurdish website.
“I don’t know why they’re frightened, I haven’t done anything,” he said, claiming he only filmed Krekar. Spydevold said her client thinks, though, that the man who filmed is a high-ranking member of the guerrilla organization Krekar once led, Ansar al-Islam, and that he felt threatened by him.
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