King Harald V did not act on Muslim cleric Mullah Krekar’s appeal of an extradition order to send him to Italy, where he’s been convicted on terror charges and sentenced to 12 years in jail. The defense lawyer for Krekar, also known as Najumuddin Faraj Ahmad, called the king’s refusal to halt the extradition “an enormous disappointment.”
“If Norway had followed its own laws and the international obligations is has, this would not have happened,” claimed lawyer Brynjar Meling, who has represented Krekar as his public defender for many years.
Krekar came to Norway as a refugee nearly 30 years ago, traveled back to Northern Iraq to lead a guerrilla group and has been since been charged with various terrorist acts and making threats, also against now-Prime Minister Erna Solberg. He’s been in and out of prison and the courts since the late 1990s.
Krekar’s objections to the pending extradition had been turned down all the way up to the Supreme Court. Only a pardon from the monarch could halt the extradition, and that didn’t come.
That means “it’s finally approved that Ahmad shall be delivered” to Italy, according to the justice ministry, even though an extradition is subject to delay because of the Corona crisis that’s gripping both Italy and Norway, along with much of Europe.
Krekar currently remains in prison in Norway, at least untl March 25. Meling has indicated he will now attempt to take Krekar’s case to the European Court of Human Rights i Strasbourg.
newsinenglish.no staff
