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| Europe |
| Mullah Krekar may be linked to Allawi hit plot |
| 2004-12-09 |
| The founder of radical Islamist group Ansar al-Islam was questioned in Oslo by German police ahead of the arrests in Germany of three men suspected of plotting to attack visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. German police interrogated Mullah Krekar in Oslo early last week and he is thought to be linked to at least one of the men arrested on Friday on suspicion of planning attacks during Allawi's visit, the Norwegian daily VG reported Sunday. All three have been ordered held over their alleged membership of Ansar al-Islam, described by German authorities as a foreign terrorist organisation. A fourth man, a Lebanese, was also arrested on Saturday in Berlin on suspicion of supporting Ansar al-Islam. Krekar, who has lived in Norway since 1991, founded the group in December 2001, but insists that he has not been its leader since May 2002. "The content of what happened in the Oslo court has been classified by the court, so I cannot offer concrete comments," Krekar's lawyer Brynjar Meling said in a public television interview. He confirmed however that German police among other things wanted details of his client's European contacts. Asked whether the telephone number of one of the men arrested on Friday was found in Krekar's possession, Meling told NTB news agency that, when Krekar was arrested in the Netherlands two years ago "he had an electronic phone book containing up to 2,000 names and numbers... so it is possible that the police found this man's telephone number at Krekar's" home. Krekar's brother Khalid Faraj Ahmad meanwhile told NTB that Krekar's interrogation last week was in connection with an old case and that the interview had been planned for months. "He was questioned as a witness in a case concerning several Kurds who were arrested in Germany a long time ago," Ahmad insisted. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |