Radical refugee Mullah Krekar compared Norway’s prison system to North Korea’s when he was released from a jail in Kongsvinger Sunday morning. He then was free to go home to his family, after slamming the Norwegian justice system that has protected them all for years.

Krekar had already managed to defy the government authorities he continues to aggravate. His Norwegian defense attorney filed an appeal late last week that prevents or at least postpones Krekar’s banishment to a small town in Trøndelag pending his deportation. Attorney Brynjar Meling has signaled that he intends to take the appeal all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary, meaning Krekar can go free on the meantime.

The police and justice ministry had sought to contain him while they continue efforts to send him back to Northern Iraq, which he fled in 1991 only to return as the leader of the guerrilla group Ansar al-Islam. It has been listed as a terrorist organization and Krekar defied the terms of the asylum he had won in Norway to travel back to Iraq to fight its authorities. Since 2003, when he was declared a threat to national security in Norway after returning to the country that also granted asylum to his family, Krekar has fought to remain in Norway, on the grounds he’d risk torture and execution back in Iraq now.

Krekar’s release from the Kongsvinger prison, where he’d been serving a 34-month sentence for threatening now-Prime Minister Erna Solberg and two Kurds living in Norway, now leaves him free to enjoy the rights and protection of a system he otherwise bashes at regular intervals. A court in Oslo will hear his appeal of last week’s order that he be sent to an asylum center in the village of Kyrksæterøra on Tuesday Tuesday.

newsinenglish.no staff