Mullah Krekar

Najmudin Vahid Faraj Ahmed (نەجمەدین وەحید فەرەج ئەحمەد, July 7, 1956), better known as Mullah Krekar (مه‌لا کرێکار), is an Iraqi Kurdish Sunni Islamic scholar and militant who was the founder and former leader of Islamist militant group Ansar al-Islam.

He came to Norway as a refugee from Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991.

His wife, Rukhosh Ahmad, and his four children have Norwegian citizenship, but not Krekar himself.

He speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, Norwegian and English.

Krekar was the original leader of the Islamist armed group Ansar al-Islam, which was set up and commenced operations in Northern Iraq while he had refugee status in Norway.

Krekar claims, however, not to have had foreknowledge of the various terrorist attacks performed by the group he was leading.

Most death sentences have been changed into life sentences since the Kurdish authorities took power in 1992, the exception being that eleven alleged members of Ansar al-Islam were hanged in the regional capital of Erbil in October 2006.

In August 2002, while Krekar was in Iraq, the Norwegian government revoked his refugee status on the grounds that he had traveled back to his homeland and spent long periods there.

Krekar was arrested in the Netherlands at Schiphol Airport near Amsterdam in September 2002, after Iran denied him entry and sent him back to Europe.

He was interviewed by FBI agents (at Krekar's request, in an attempt to clear his and his group's name); no extradition request was made.

Since February 2003 he has an expulsion order against him, which is suspended pending Iraqi government guarantees that he will not face torture or execution.

Norway is committed to international treaties which prohibit the expulsion of an individual without such a guarantee.

Kurdish authorities in the Kurdistan Regional Government have repeatedly asked for Mullah Krekar to be extradited from Norway.

The death penalty remains on the books in the Kurdistan region.

He was deported to Norway in January 2003.

In February 2003 the Norwegian government ordered Krekar to be deported to Iraq, but as of July 2009 the order had not been implemented because of the security environment in Iraq, and the risk that Krekar could face the death penalty there, as Norway will not deport people in these circumstances.

On March 21, 2003 his arrest was ordered by Økokrim, the Norwegian law enforcement agency for financial crime, to ensure he did not leave the country while accusations that he had financed terrorist attacks using Norway as a base were investigated.

Court proceedings against Krekar were however dropped when it proved impossible to prove his connections with the terrorist attacks staged in Iraq by Ansar al-Islam during his leadership.

His term as leader ended.

The United States government has declared Ansar al-Islam a terrorist group, but Krekar denies that it was during the time he headed it, and says he no longer does.

While Krekar has not been found guilty of anything, a number of his opinions have met little sympathy; he was once recorded claiming that Osama bin Laden is the "jewel in the crown of Islam".

and that he was proud of what Abu Musab al-Zarqawi "has done and that he has become a martyr".

Krekar has unsuccessfully challenged the expulsion order in court, with the order being confirmed in September 2005.

Norway's government has said that the new government to be elected in Iraq in December 2005 might permit discussion on whether Krekar's expulsion order can be implemented.

In September 2005 the Iraqi Justice Minister Abdel Hussein Shandal said that Krekar was wanted in Iraq and should be tried there.

About the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, he said to the Norwegian media "This is a declaration of war against of our religion, our faith, and our civilization. We Muslims are ready for this."

Krekar told the Kurdish magazine Awene that he wants to return to Iraq to fight openly against the Iraqi government and the coalition, but that he lacked travel documents from the Norwegian government.

He confirmed to a Norwegian newspaper that he had been correctly quoted.

The Norwegian minister of labour and migration, Bjarne Håkon Hanssen, responded that Krekar could leave at any time and that he would be given "travel documents within the day. He'll also get money for airline tickets, taxi cab, and the whole deal. If he really wants to go, that is."

He has as of 8 December 2006 been on the UN terror list, and as of 8 November 2007 been judged by the Supreme Court of Norway as a "danger to national security".

On December 7, 2006, the United States Department of the Treasury designated mullah Krekar as one of five individuals providing financial support to terrorist organizations.

In a statement he is accused of providing funds for Ansar al-Sunnah, an active Iraqi terror-organization descended from Ansar al-Islam.

The press release states that "This designation freezes any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits all financial and commercial transactions by any U.S. person with the designees".

On March 26, 2012, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for making repeated death threats against Norwegian politicians and the Kurds if they pursued certain civil actions against him.

He has appealed this prison sentence.

The next day, March 27, 2012, he was arrested by the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST) and Norwegian Police and taken into protective custody and incarceration.

This occurred after certain additional statements of a threatening nature were linked to him, suggesting that others might take retaliatory actions against Norwegians if his civil prison sentence were implemented.

He is currently serving a prison sentence in Italy, after having been extradited from Norway in 2020.

In 2020, he was extradited to Italy.

In 2022, his 12-year prison sentence was upheld when the Italian Supreme Court rejected his appeal.