Mullah Krekar, the Kurdish founder of radical Guillaume group Ansar al-Islam, was sentenced to five years in prison today for making death threats against Norwegian officials and three Kurdish men.
55-year-old Krekar (real name Najm Faraj Ahmad) arrived in Oslo, Norway as an asylum seeker in 1991. From there he founded and ran Ansar al-Islam, considered by many international organizations and countries as a terrorist organization.

Krekar, who claims to have left the group in 2002, is also believed to have made several trips to Iraq to lead the group.

Krekar was convicted yesterday of making online death threats against three Norwegian Kurds he believed had abandoned Islam by insulting and burning parts of the Qur'an.

He was also convicted of threatening several Norwegian officials, including a former cabinet minister over attempts to deport him back to Iraq.

Last January, the cleric told members of the Foreign Press Association in Oslo, back in 2010: "My death will cost the Norwegian society. If Erna Solberg [a Norwegian politician] throws me out of the country and I die as a result, she will suffer the same fate."

Solberg issued a formal expulsion against Krekar in 2005, for being a threat to national security.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has also made several requests for the extradition of the controversial cleric but Norway, adhering to international treaties, has refused because Krekar may face execution in his home country.

Krekar clarified that he personally would not carry out any assassinations but that his followers would.

But Oslo district court judge Per Fleisje ruled that having several hundred followers, Krekar's statements could be taken as death threats.

He said the cleric "puts considerable pressure on his followers" for "them to seek revenge on his behalf.”

The Kurdish cleric and his lawyer, Brynjar Meling, immediately appealed the verdict.




AKnews