January 2, 2004
Spiritual Leader Is Arrested in Norway

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 9:30 a.m. ET

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Mullah Krekar, the spiritual leader of the
Iraq-based Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam, was arrested Friday,
his brother told The Associated Press.

Police went to Krekar's house in the morning and took him to a police
station in Oslo, said Khalid Faraj Ahmad.

``They won't allow me to go in. They want to take him,'' he said. ``I
don't know what they will do with him.''

Krekar's lawyer, Brynjar Meling, told the Norwegian news agency NTB
that new charges were filed against Krekar, but he wasn't told what
they were. A phone call to Meling by the AP went unanswered.

Ansar al-Islam, a group of as many as 600 Islamic militants in the
mountains of northern Iraq, is regarded as a terrorist organization by
the United States and the United Nations.

During a visit to Oslo in September, Attorney General John Ashcroft
called it a ``very dangerous group'' and said the organization
maintained a network for terrorist training camps in northern Iraq.

Krekar, born Najm al-Din Faraj Ahmad, has repeatedly denied links with
al-Qaida, although he has called Osama bin Laden ``a good Muslim.'' He
has also denied any connection with recent bombings and terror attacks
in Iraq, or any role in smuggling drugs in Jordan.

He was arrested at the airport outside Amsterdam on Sept. 12, 2002,
after Iran had denied him entry and sent him back to Europe, tipping
off Western governments that he was on his way.

He was interrogated twice by the FBI while in Dutch custody, and then
deported in January to Norway, where he was arrested again.

He was released from a Norwegian jail in April after a court found
insufficient grounds to hold him on terrorism charges. Police dropped
the charges in July, but are investigating him on other charges that
they refuse to reveal.

Krekar has had refugee status in Norway for more than a decade,
something Norwegian authorities are challenging because he regularly
returned to Iraq, the country he had fled during the reign of Saddam
Hussein.

Krekar has lived freely in Norway since his release from jail in April
when a court ruled there wasn't enough evidence to hold him on charges
of terrorism.