Mullah Krekar appeared on Arab language TV only five weeks ago as leader of the group Ansar al-Islam.
| The organization he says he's not involved with anymore... |
In the debate program Krekar confirmed that Ansar al-Islam was behind a suicide attack in Northern Iraq on March 22nd last year, in which 3 people were killed. One of them was an Australian journalist. In the program on the TV channel Al-Jazeera on December 2nd last year, Krekar was introduced as Ansar al-Islam’s leader several times, without any protests from Krekar. The host of the program also adressed the Mullah several times as Zaim (leader in Arabic), without any protests, Aftenposten writes. Mullah Krekar took part in the debate from a studio in Oslo, while the other participants were present in the station’s own studio in Qatar. Whenever Krekar was presented with written subtitles on the program, it was also as leader of Ansar al-Islam, the newspaper writes. Since Krekar was taken into custody early last year, he has the whole time acknowledged that he had been a leader of the fundamentalistic Islamic movement Ansar al-Islam in the past, but has said both publicly and to the police that he no longer has a position within the movement today. |