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Germany: Iraqi Kurdish man sentenced for supporting
terror
10.7.2007 |
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July
10, 2007
MUNICH, Germany, -- A German court on Monday
sentenced an Iraqi Kurdish man to 5,5 years in
prison for supporting an extremist group believed to
have been behind attacks in his homeland.
The Munich state court found that Ferhad Kanabi
Ahmad, a 36-year-old Iraqi Kurd, gave the equivalent
of $8,935 to a member of Ansar al-Sunna in Germany
"and so supported terror in Iraq.'' It stopped just
short of the prosecution's call for a six-year
sentence.
The defense had called for Ahmad to be acquitted.
The defendant stayed silent during the yearlong
trial, and the prosecutors' case relied heavily on
intercepted phone calls and e-mails.
Ansar al-Sunna is the successor to Ansar al-Islam,
which was formed in Kurdistan (the Kurdish parts of
Iraq) found by Mullah Krekar and is believed to
include former al-Qaida members who fled the
U.S.-led ouster of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers.
The organizations are suspected of involvement in a
string of deadly attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqi
police as well as foreign embassies, international
organizations and rival Iraqi groups.
The court convicted Ahmad on three counts of
supporting a foreign terrorist organization. It also
found him guilty of violating German export laws
because Ansar al-Sunna is listed by the European
Union as a terrorist organization and giving it
money violates an EU embargo.
In its ruling, the court said the living costs of a
fighter in Iraq add up to only $20-50 per day.
"The money collected and transferred by the
defendant constituted a significant contribution to
the financing of terrorist actions, particularly
suicide attacks,'' the ruling said.
In a parallel trial at the Munich court that ended
last month, another Iraqi man, Dieman Abdulkadir
Izzat, was sentenced to three years and three months
in prison for giving money to Ansar al-Islam.
Ansar al-Islam terrorist attacks in Kurdistan region
(Iraq): |
Covered by an attorney's robe, Iraqi Kurdish citizen
Farhad Kanabi Ahmad, (left), enters a courtroom with
attorney Stephan Lucas, right, and court officer
Helmut Wimmer, center, in Munich, southern Germany,
Monday, July 9, 2007.AP
Mullah Krekar, the founder of radical and Terrorist
Islamist group Ansar al-Islam. Krekar, whose real
name is Fateh Najmeddin Faraj |
In May 2005 a suicide bomber
killed at least 60 people and
wounded 150 more when he blew himself
up at the office of a Kurdish party in the northern
Iraqi city of Erbil
On
May 9, 2007 a suicide truck
bomber from Ansar al-Islam kills 19, wounds 70 in
Iraqi Kurdistan's capital of Erbil, Kurdish Ansar
al-Islam terrorist group has
claimed responsibility
for the blast.
May 13 was another bloody day for the Kurds, a
suicide car bomb targeted the headquarters of the
KDP party in Makhmour city in Kurdistan region
killed at least 30 people and
wounded 115 others including the
city's mayor. Nine members of Ansar al-Islam were
arrested for these terrorist attacks. Security
forces in Iraq’s Kurdistan autonomous region have
arrested several followers of previously tolerated
Islamist parties, accusing them of links to
insurgents.
Krekar, whose real name is Fateh Najmeddin Faraj,
has lived in Norway as a refugee since 1991, and has
been under threat of deportation since Norwegian
media revealed he was the founder of the radical
Islamist group Ansar al-Islam. The
Ansar al-Islam,
listed as a terrorist organization by
United States and
Kurdistan region (Iraq).
AP
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