Ubaydullah Hussain

Arslan Ubaydullah Maroof Hussain (born 1985) is an Islamist from Oslo, Norway, who was the former spokesperson for the group Profetens Ummah.

Born into a family of Pakistani origin in Bjerke, Oslo, Hussain was an active ice hockey and football player with Hasle-Løren IL prior to his involvement with Profetens Ummah.[1]

Until 2011, Hussain was a football and futsal referee, overseeing matches in Norway and elsewhere. This included refereeing matches in the Norway Cup. In 2011, he ended a match between Romsås IL and Høland IL three minutes early, after he was threatened by Romsås players when he gave one of their team members a red card and awarded their opponents a penalty. He was dismissed as a referee when the Football Association of Norway were informed of his extremist views.[2]

Legal issues

Hussain was arrested on 25 October 2012, charged with making threats against two journalists, one of whom was Nina Johnsrud.[3] He was convicted in February 2014 and sentenced to a 120-day prison term, although he was released immediately due to the time he had already spent in custody.[4] On 8 July 2014, Hussain was charged with multiple counts of encouraging others to commit murder and acts of terrorism. He denied all charges.[5] He was acquitted by the district court on 3 October 2014, the prosecution appealed the decision.[6]

References

  1. ↑ Hultgreen, Gunnar (26 October 2012). "Ekstremistens forvandling - fra fotball til ekstremist". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 10 July 2014.
  2. ↑ Hjelle, Thomas (25 October 2012). "Trusselsiktet islamist hadde en lovende karriere som fotballdommer". Dagbladet (in Norwegian).
  3. ↑ Hultgreen, Gunnar (25 October 2012). "Nektet straffskyld, ble ikke løslatt" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet.
  4. ↑ "Norway Islamist convicted of threats, hate speech". Yahoo! News. 7 February 2014.
  5. ↑ Doksheim, Therese (8 July 2014). "Ubaydullah Hussain tiltalt for å ha oppfordret til drap". Dagbladet (in Norwegian). Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  6. ↑ Tommelstad, Bjørnar; Hopperstad, Morten S. (3 October 2014). "Ubaydullah Hussain er frifunnet". Verdens Gang (in Norwegian). Retrieved 3 October 2014.