Ouch - Mullah Krekar has been released from custody. According to a report by Krekar's private investigator Harald Olsen, several key witnesses against him were tortured by the PUK. The police found this credible enough to let Krekar go:

Olsen has taken new statements from witnesses formerly questioned by [the Norwegian police]. Some of these witnesses were out of prison when Olsen spoke to them, others still imprisoned. Olso has also been in touch with close family members of the witnesses. [..]

From what Aftenposten knows, [Olsen's] information has contributed to the release. According to the report, eight or nine key witnesses, who had been interrogated by guards in a military base run by PUK about 50 km from Suleymaniya in Northern Iraq, were exposed to psychological and physical torture. American forces are responsible for the base, but have left PUK in charge of much of it.

Several of the witnesses were boys as young as 16, who have been kept imprisoned for months with no legal assistance. The witnesses were supposedly promised release.

The charges against Krekar have not been dropped - yet. What this means is that the evidence Krekar's detention was justified with has been weakened. The police does have other evidence, including (supposedly) e-mails where Krekar orders suicide attacks in Iraq, intercepted by the CIA. And surely finding a reliable witness that Ansar al-Islam under Krekar planned suicide attacks and that Krekar was aware of it can't be that difficiult? If the case falls over this, it will say more about police incompetence than about Krekar's innocence.

As expected, Krekar's lawyer Brynjar Meling takes this as a cue to launch a media offensive. He will now discuss the decision to expell Krekar, (which is unrelated to this case), with Amnesty International. The irony is beautiful - the mini-tyrant, head-chopper and martyr-launcher seeking aid from an organization dedicated to the preservation of human rights.

(Update: See also document.no.)

I don't think Amnesty International is devoted to human rights. Maybe they were once, at the beginning of time, but now they gravitate toward aiding and abetting some of the worst scum of human society.

Amensty's time would be better spent aiding the poor in third world countries rather than criticising the actions of Western nations, especailly when these acts pale in comparision to what goes on in the average third world dictatorship.

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