Ali Berzengi and Ferman Abdulla

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Ali Kamal Berzengi (born December 20, 1975) and Ferman Jabbar Abdulla (born ca. 1980/1981) are two Swedish citizens of Iraqi-Kurdish descent who in 2005 were convicted of financing terrorism by collecting and transferring money to the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, based in Iraq.

[edit] Background

Ali Berzengi, who also went by the name Ali Sharia, was born in Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. He left Iraq in 1997. He first travelled via Turkey to Greece, has visited Germany, Netherlands and Norway where he has sought asylym. In 2002, Berzengi was registered in Sweden where he received permanent residence permit the same year. He did not have a formal job but lived of government subsidies while also being an Imam at a mosque in Märsta north of Stockholm. He has a wife and two children in Sweden. Berzengi later moved to Malmö in southern Sweden where he met with Ferman Abdulla, the owner of a small falafel fast food stand in the city. Together they started to visit mosques around Sweden, and also in Norway, to raise money for what was claimed to be poor children and Muslims in Afghanistan, Palestine, Chechnya, and Iraqi Kurdistan. The money was then transferred through Abdulla's fast food stand in Malmö, using the hawala transfer system.^[1]

[edit] Police investigation and court proceedings

Through its international co-operation, the Swedish Security Service, in 2002, was informed that people in Sweden had transferred money to the Kurdish Islamist groups Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunna, based in Iraq.^[2] On April 19, 2004, Berzengi and Abdulla were arrested along with another Iraqi, Shaho Shahab, and Lebanese-born Bilal Ramadan. Ramadan was released in September after a court found that there wasn't enough evidence to keep him in custody. Shahab was released in December after the government decided to deport him to Iraq. However, since Shahab risks receiving the death penalty in his home country, the deportation has not been carried out.^[3] In Abdulla's apartment the police found a letter from a man who claimed to have been in contact with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, as well as a detailed manuel on how to use coded language.^[1]

On May 12, 2005, Abdulla and Berzengi were convicted by the Stockholm District Court for "planning of terrorist offences" (Swedish: förberedelse till terroristbrott) and "planning of public devastation" (Swedish: förberedelse till allmänfarlig ödeläggelse) according to Swedish law. Accord to the court they had transferred approximately one million SEK to Ansar al-Islam. According to the court there was strong evidence that the collected money had the specific purpose of financing terrorist attacks. Much of the evidence presented consisted of secret wire-tappings from U.S. and German intelligence sources. In the recordings Abdulla and Berzengi used coded language to describe the attacks. Berzengi, who according to the court was the leading of the two, was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment and Abdulla to six years.^[4] The Svea Court of Appeal later reduced the sentences to five years for Berzengi and four and a half year for Abdulla.^[5] The appeal to the Supreme Court was denied.^[6] The both are also to be deported back to Iraq after serving their sentences in Sweden. Abdulla is currently serving his sentence at the Norrköping Prison.^[1]

The conviction of Berzengi and Abdulla was the first since the new Swedish terrorism legislation was taken into effect on July 1, 2003. It was also the first ever conviction in Western Europe of people financing terrorism.^[1]

[edit] References