Germany to investigate Kurdish Islamic radical Mullah Krekar

January 16, 2014 Basnews – BERLIN,— Khalid Ranjdar, the brother of former Iraqi Kurdish extremist leader Mullah Krekar, has announced that the German government will investigate Krekar this March in Oslo, Norway, on charges of setting up an extremist group in Europe called Raut, which means “movement” in Kurdish.

Ranjdar said he was notified by his lawyer at the end of last year that Berlin authorities had informed Krekar they would be investigating him.

Ranjdar revealed that last year, German officials wanted Norway to sent Krekar, along with ten other wanted men, to Germany so that they could carry out the investigation regarding the formation of an extremist group. Norway declined the German request, however, and wanted the German authorities to send the evidence to them so that they could carry out the investigation. “So far, Germany hasn’t given any evidence to Norway, but they have informed them that they want to investigate Mullah Krekar on March 31st of this year,” Ranjdar explained.

Mulla Krekar (58), with real name Fateh Najmeddin Faraj, founded the Ansar al-Islam organization in 2001, as a merger of Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam), and a splinter group from Islamic Movement of Kurdistan (IMK).

Ansar al-Islam group listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and Iraqi Kurdistan government. The group is also suspected in suicide bombings of coalition forces in Iraqi Kurdistan, Krekar in one of the most wanted in Iraqi Kurdistan region on charges of terrorist attacks in the region.

Krekar has immigrated to Norway in 1991 after “Islamic scholarship” and training in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1980s. Earlier his pictures from Afghanistan has been published in many Islamic web sites and Krekar has also confirmed that he had meeting with Osama bin Ladin already in 1988 in Peshawar in Pakistan. Authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government have repeatedly asked for Mullah Krekar to be extradited from Norway. Krekar, who claims to have left the group in 2002, is also believed to have made several trips to Iraq to lead the group. Since February 2003, Krekar has had an expulsion order against him, which is suspended pending Iraqi government guarantees that he will not face torture or execution. It is worth noting that Norway is adherent to international treaties that do not allow the expulsion of an individual unless such guarantees are in place.