OSLO: Norway on Wednesday provisionally jailed controversial Iraqi Kurdish fundamentalist preacher Mullah Krekar, following a conviction in Italy for “terrorist conspiracy,” his lawyer said.

Norwegian intelligence (PST) had arrested Krekar, 63, on Monday in Oslo under an international search warrant as well as an Italian arrest warrant, and an Oslo judge ruled on Wednesday he should be placed in provisional detention for four weeks.

Italy’s justice ministry meanwhile told Norwegian media that Rome would make an official extradition request. However the procedure could take years as Krekar’s lawyers say they will appeal a 12-year sentence which a court in Bolzano, northern Italy, handed down in absentia on Monday.

The Italian court also sentenced five co-accused.

Krekar, whose real name is Najumuddin Ahmad Faraj, has lived in Norway since 1991. He was found guilty of leading the Rawti Shax, a network with alleged links to the militant Islamic State group and which is suspected of planning attacks in the West.

His Norwegian lawyer Brynjar Meling said that his client rejected the charge and added that “all appeal avenues” would be pursued.

“He has no connection with IS,” Meling said after the Italian court ruling.

“His only goal is to come back to Kurdistan in Iraq and be able to (be a) politician there, set up a political party he wants to establish in Iraq as a free man,” Meling said.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2019