Mullah Krekar extradited to Italy

Mullah Krekar, a Kurdish Muslim cleric was extradited Thursday from Norway to Italy, where he has been sentenced to 12 years in jail for planning terror. Mullah Krekar founded the now-defunct Ansar al-Islam insurgent group of Sunni Kurds, which is a branch of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood.

Norwegian Justice Minister Monica Maeland told a news conference that Iraqi-born Mullah Krekar had been sent to Italy. “We have been waiting for Italy to say it was justifiable to do so, and they thought it was today,” Maeland said.

Mullah Fateh Krekar was born in 1956. He received his early education in Iraq. He studied Arabic at the Sulaimania College from where he graduated in 1982.

Between1971 and 1973, Mullah Krekar was a member of the Kurdistan Students Union, which was affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

In 1973, Krekar was an active member of the Muslim Brotherhood against the communist trend, which was concerned about the class struggle. Mullah Krekar joined the Muslim Brotherhood to combat communism in Iraq.

In 1991, Norway granted Mullah Krekar and his family political asylum. He and his brother published an Arabic-language newspaper named “Kurdistan”.

In 2001 he returned to northern Iraq to build a mosque in his hometown, Sulaimania. In 2002, he was elected emir of Ansar al-Islam a few months ahead of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Mullah Krekar voiced his support to the terrorist organization ISIS. He was accused of recruiting young people for ISIS. An Italian newspaper said 7 Kurds were detained by the Italian authorities. Krekar was accused of terrorist operations, including Paris attacks on Nov. 13, 2015.

Mullah Krekar is also a writer, poet and a preacher, who is fluent in a number of languages. He authored many religious books in Kurdish. He also wrote poetry books in Kurdish: The Pain of Birth and The Pain of Survival.