Mullah Krekar.

Foto: Morten Holm (Scanpix)

The trial against Mullah Krekar and 14 other alleged terrorists in Jordan has just taken a sharp, unexpected turn.

Jordan demanded Mullah Krekar extradited because of this case when he was first arrested in Amsterdam, September 12, 2002, however, now new questions regarding the credibility of the demand has surfaced.

In the on-going case at the state security court in Jordan, Mullah Krekar and 14 others alleged members of the groups Ansar al-Islam and al-Qaeda are charged for planning an attack against tourists and Jordanian security forces.

Retracted his confession

Riyati claims he was tortured by the Americans, Kurds and Jordanians in order to confess and implicate the Mullah. Krekar was pulled into the case due to Riyati’s confession.

Jordan Times published a story Wednesday stating that Riyati had withdrawn his confession. Furthermore, Riyati claims that he was tortured by Americans, Kurds and Jordanians. Seven persons, who allegedly were jailed with Riyati, have stated that they saw wounds on Riyati’s body that would indicate that he had been subjected to torture. According to Jordan Times, this new information will be treated in court during the next couple of weeks.

Norway refuses

Norwegian authorities have already refused to extradite Mullah Krekar to Jordan.

Initially, Jordan demanded that Mullah Krekar was extradited from the Netherlands based on the current terror charge, but later Jordanian authorities changed the reason to narcotics charges.

Questionable charges

TV 2 Nettavisen exposed earlier that the narcotics charge was fake. The charge was fabricated by the prosecutor and Major General Mamoun Khassawneh, head of the state security court, allegedly in order to use the UN convention in order to get Mullah Krekar extradited.

Apparently the recent findings put a question mark at the current terror charge, and it may just be of the quality same as the former narcotics charge.

According to Amnesty International, several people have “confessed” in the Jordanian state security court after torture.

American pressure

The two writers Newsweek writers, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, claim in the latest issue of the weekly magazine that the US played a definite part in the last arrest of Mullah Krekar in Oslo, Norway.

According to Newsweek, sources in the Bush administration have confirmed that American authorities assisted Norwegian police to collect evidence which was used in the last arrest of Mullah Krekar.

TV 2 Nettavisen has previously revealed that the US have for a long time been putting pressure on Norwegian authorities in order to get Mullah Krekar behind bars and have several times expressed their discontent with the way Norway is handling the case. The American Attorney General John Ashcroft was allegedly one of the representatives sent to Norway to express the Bush administrations view of the situation.