Posted on 04/04/2003 7:21:50 AM PST by Destro
Norwegian Court Releases Ansar Al-Islam Founder
Wed April 2, 2003 03:30 PM ET
OSLO (Reuters) - A Norwegian appeals court freed an Iraqi Kurdish founder of the Islamist group Ansar al-Islam on Wednesday, overturning an earlier ruling to keep him jailed during an anti-terror investigation, police said.
Mullah Krekar, who has had refugee status in Norway since 1991 and denies any terror links, had been detained for almost two weeks since a lower court ruled that police could keep him jailed for a month.
"He has been released by the court," a spokeswoman for Norway's Economic Crime Unit said after the Borgarting appeals court ordered police to free Krekar, arrested on March 20.
The prosecution later on Wednesday lodged another appeal to the High Court, the highest Norwegian court.
Oslo District Court had ruled in March that police had sufficient evidence to keep Krekar jailed while they investigated him, but Krekar had appealed.
"I am relieved, but it is unfortunate that Krekar had to stay in jail for two weeks before this decision," Krekar's lawyer Brynjar Meling told Reuters.
In February, Secretary of State Colin Powell told the U.N. Security Council that Ansar al-Islam had sheltered al Qaeda members, including a senior Baghdad agent of the network.
On Tuesday the U.S. military said a Kurdish-led ground offensive in northern Iraq, preceded by U.S. air strikes, had killed most of the members of Ansar al-Islam, and driven survivors from territory they held near the Iranian border.
Krekar had told the court that he was no longer the leader of Ansar al-Islam, which Washington accuses of ties to al Qaeda, suspected of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
Meling said Krekar was one of several founders of Ansar al-Islam and its first leader from December 2001 to May 2002. Krekar says has had no contact with the group since then.
Police said the focus of the investigation was Krekar's remarks to Dutch television last month that U.S. troops faced the threat of suicide bombings by Ansar al-Islam guerrillas in Kurdish-held northern Iraq, where the group is based.
"We will appeal to the High Court because we are not satisfied," said Erling Grimstad, in charge of the police investigation. "We are still investigating this case with full speed and will continue to do so even though (Krekar) has been let out of custody," he told Reuters.
Meling said the appeals court had concluded that Krekar had not broken Norwegian terrorism law, based on analysis of the original Dutch television report.
"In the video, Krekar does not in any way encourage attacks on civilians outside of a war zone. That means that he has not broken the law," Meling said.
Norway's government has said it wants to expel Krekar due to national security concerns, but has not given any details.
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