Suspected Of Becoming ISIS Recruiter, Swedish Imam Deported After Being Detained For A Year

Ilustrasi ISIS. (Wikimedia Commons/thierry ehrmann)

JAKARTA - An imam suspected of being an ISIS recruiter has been deported by Sweden after a year in detention.

Ahmed Ahmed, 52, was detained last year on suspicion of being a key figure in the radicalization and recruitment of ISIS fighters across Sweden, where he has worked in mosques.

Originally from Iraq, Swedish security services deported him last week after a judge ruled he was a threat to national security.

This is related to the alleged existence of 14 people connected to him who traveled to fight for ISIS.

In a 2015 raid on his home, images of ISIS fighters and Osama bin Laden were allegedly found on his phone, along with images of the Jordanian pilot being burned alive by ISIS.

Initial investigations against him were dropped and the priest denied the allegations.

"I can confirm that he has been deported," his lawyer Alparslan Tügel told the Aftonbladet newspaper, citing The National News on January 20.

He was one of several priests detained by the Swedish government before being deported

Although criminal charges were not pursued, investigators alleged that he had contacts with most of the people in Orebro who had joined ISIS.

Meanwhile, terrorist researcher Magnus Ranstorp told Swedish newspaper Doku Ahmed was a key recruiter.

"He was important in terms of recruitment at Orebro, but he also worked in other cities like Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Eskilstuna," he said.

"He is a radical and itinerant recruiter. It is important to eliminate an important security threat to Sweden, this will affect the security situation in the future," Ranstorp said.

It is understandable that the Iraqi Denham refused to accept Ahmed, so he was put on a flight to Turkey and given a small sum of money, a cell phone, and a plane ticket to Iraq, his wife told Aftonbladet.

Five prominent Muslim clerics, including a school president, were detained following a series of raids on suspected extremism in Sweden in 2019.

Sweden's security service, Sapo, arrested three imams, the head of one of the country's leading Islamic schools, and one of the imam's sons. Of those arrested, former School of Science principal Abdel Nasser El Nadi has voluntarily left Sweden to avoid deportation.

Swedish authorities have faced domestic and international criticism for failing to arrest and prosecute returning ISIS fighters, and suggestions that the country could be viewed as a haven for terrorists.

The crackdown comes as the Swedish government seeks to impose tougher laws to target extremists.

Many of those previously arrested have been denied Swedish citizenship over the past decade.

To note, the latest figures from Sapo reveal at least 300 of its citizens traveled to Syria and Iraq between 2012 and 2017 to join extremist groups. It is believed half have returned, 100 are still fighting and 50 are dead.