At the beginning of April 2020, Advokatfirmaet Meling AS created a client account in Sandnes Sparebank with the name “Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad”. Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad (66) is better known as Mullah Krekar. Krekar was at this time extradited to Italy, where he had been sentenced to twelve years in prison for planning terror. Collection campaign started Krekar was extradited to Italy on 26 March 2020. Afterwards, Krekar’s family started a collection campaign. The money was to go to pay the 66-year-old’s Italian lawyer, so he could work on the appeal case. The money was deposited into the account that Krekar’s Norwegian lawyer Brynjar Meling had set up. There was up to NOK 50,000 in the account when Sandnes Sparebank chose to block the account. The justification from the bank was that since 2006 Krekar has been on the UN Sanctions Committee’s list of persons associated with the terrorist organization Al Qaeda. PST fined millions The police security service (PST) believes Sandnes Sparebank was not quick enough to freeze the bank account. Therefore, they gave the bank a fine of NOK one million in November last year. The money must go to the treasury. PST believes that the bank failed to freeze the account in the period between 7 April and 15 May 2020. – The bank and the bank’s board disagree with the decision on the subpoena and chose not to adopt the subpoena, says lawyer Gunnar Holm Ringen at the law firm PwC, which represents Sandnes Sparebank . Now the National Public Prosecutor’s Office (NAST) has chosen to take the disagreement to court. Takes the case to court State Attorney Marit Formo takes the case to court. Photo: Berit Roald / NTB The criminal case against the bank starts in Sør-Rogaland District Court on 18 October. It will then be the first case of its kind in Norway. – The freezing obligations are global obligations to prevent terrorism, and a breach of these can ultimately lead to the financing of terrorist acts. It is therefore important that the rules are complied with and that cases relating to breaches of the regulations are prosecuted, says state attorney Marit Formo to news. – The bank’s obligation to freeze the money on the relevant account clearly follows the regulations. In the proposal from PST, it is stated that a penalty discount has been included in the fine, but that it will disappear if Sandnes Sparebank does not accept the proposal and the case is sent to the court. In court, a request will be made for a fine of NOK 1,200,000 and legal costs will also be required, it is further stated. Facts about the Italian trial against Mullah Krekar On 12 November 2015, Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, known as Mullah Krekar, was arrested in Norway as one of a number of men in several countries in Europe, in a coordinated operation ordered by Italian police. Italian authorities claim Krekar leads a terrorist network called Rawti Shax with links to the Islamic State (IS). On Monday 13 March 2017, a terror trial against six of the defendants in the Italian investigation was due to start in the city of Bolzano. On the same day, the court decided to postpone the trial until 23 and 24 October. On 23 October, the case was adjourned again, until 15 January 2018. This was postponed, and on 29 May the local newspaper Alto Adige wrote that the trial would only start on 8 October. On 9 October, the case was adjourned again, this time to 10 December. Neither Krekar nor the two other defendants in Norway, an Iraqi living in Østfold and an Iraqi living in Buskerud, were in Italy during the trial. Both Oslo District Court and Borgarting Court of Appeal determined in 2016 that Krekar and the man living in Drammen could be extradited to Italy, and the Supreme Court rejected the appeal against the decision. On 30 November 2016, however, it became known that Italy no longer wanted Krekar extradited. Mullah Krekar was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Italy on 15 July 2019. Krekar was found guilty of terrorist planning. A man living in Østfold is sentenced to nine years in prison. A man resident in Buskerud is sentenced to 7 years and six months in prison. In August 2019, Italy requested Krekar’s extradition again. On 1 November, the Oslo District Court concluded that the conditions for extraditing Krekar are present. On 4 December 2019, the Borgarting Court of Appeal rejected Krekar’s appeal. Krekar appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, but the appeal was rejected. The Department of Justice has concluded that Krekar can be extradited. The decision was appealed, but rejected by the King in Cabinet on 13 March 2020. On 26 March 2020, Minister of Justice Monica Mæland confirmed that Mullah Krekar has been sent to Italy. Among other things, Krekar has been imprisoned in Milan. SOURCE: news The bank strongly disagrees Lawyer Gunnar Holm Ringen represents Sandnes Sparebank in the case. Photo: Berit Roald / NTB Lawyer Gunnar Holm Ringen says Sandnes Sparebank has been very keen to handle the case correctly right from the start. – From the first hit on the sanctions list, the bank has been concerned with doing the right thing and followed all advice from the competent authorities. The funds on the client account were made unavailable to those listed from the first payment. The bank strongly disagrees with being ordered to do so. Ringen says the bank followed all the advice they received from Økokrim, and then Finanstilsynet. – It is also important to emphasize that no funds have left the client account and, of course, have not reached the listed one either, and there has been no risk that the funds in the client account could be used to finance terrorism. – Mulla Krekar has never been a customer of the bank, emphasizes Ringen. Meling to testify in court Lawyer Brynjar Meling has been called as a witness by Sandnes Sparebank. Photo: Carina Johansen / NTB Krekar’s Norwegian lawyer Brynjar Meling raged against the Norwegian authorities when news first mentioned that the money in the account was locked. Meling accused the authorities of doing what they could to make “the murder of justice (at Krekar, journ.anm.) complete”. – Contrary to what is assumed by the Norwegian authorities, Krekar does not get free legal aid. First they reject his application for free legal aid in Norway, then they send the man to Italy. Then they seize the money that has been collected for Italy, Meling said in May last year. Meling will be one of the bank’s witnesses in the trial in Sør-Rogaland district court. He must tell about the creation of the account and its purpose. news has not been able to get a comment from lawyer Meling on this case. Public prosecutor Marit Formo denies that the account should have been exempted from the rules on sanctions because the money was to be used to pay for Krekar’s Italian lawyer. – No, the obligation to freeze applies as a starting point in full to all money belonging to a listed person, including money for legal expenses, says Formo. She explains that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can make exceptions to the freezing obligation, if an application is received. This may, among other things, apply to money that is to be used to pay for legal assistance. – However, there was no such application or decision in this case, says Formo. In May, the Supreme Court of Italy rejected Krekar’s appeal. This means that the terrorist sentence of 12 years in prison was upheld.
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Sandnes Sparebank is taken to court for the Krekar account – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
