A Norwegian court on Monday sentenced Mullah Krekar, the founder of a radical Iraqi Kurdish Islamist group, to five years in jail for issuing death threats against a former government minister and others. The 55-year-old mullah, whose real name is Najmeddine Faraj Ahmad and who has lived in Norway since 1991, founded the Ansar al-Islam group. He was found guilty of threatening the life of Erna Solberg, an ex-minister who signed his expulsion order in 2003 because he was considered a threat to national security. “Norway will pay a heavy price for my death,” he said during a meeting with international media in June 2010. “If for example Erna Solberg deports me and I die as a result, she will suffer the same fate,” he said in Arabic. “I don’t know who will kill her: Al-Qaeda, Ansar al-Islam, my family, my children. I don’t know… But she will pay the price.” The three Oslo court judges said the threat was aimed at pushing Norwegian authorities to retract the expulsion order. Krekar, whose name is on terrorist lists drawn up by the United Nations and the United States, has avoided expulsion since the order was signed nine years ago since Norwegian law prevents him from being deported to Iraq until his safety can be guaranteed and as long as he risks the death penalty there. Krekar was also accused of threatening three other Kurds living in Norway who had burned pages of the Koran or insulted it in another way.
