Radical Iraqi imam Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, will not be extradited from Norway to stand trial in Italy on international terrorism charges, after a judge in the northern city of Trento revoked his arrest warrant, local prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The Norwegian prosecutors did not say why Ahmad's arrest warrant had been revoked but quoted the communication they received from Italy's justice ministry as saying the move followed an Italian court ruling in March.
Ahmad had already been released from custody, according to Norwegian media. He had been held since last Wednesday when he lost a final appeal against his extradition to Italy.
Prosecutors in Trento had accused Ahmad, an Iraqi Kurd better known as Mullah Krekar, of running a jihadist terror network from prison in Norway and of plotting attacks on the West.
The 'Rawti Shax' network has links to the Islamic State militant group and its aim is to overthrow the government of Iraq's Kurdistan region and replace it with an Islamic 'caliphate' according to Italian prosecutors.
Italian authorities issued an international arrest warrant in November last year for Ahmad, who founded the radical Sunni group Ansar Al-Islam in 2001 and has been living in Norway since 1991.
Norwegian police arrested the cleric and two others in an operation against Rawti Shax, which is also accused of recruiting and radicalising Muslims over the Internet.
Ahmad and the two other suspects were arrested in Norway on suspicion of plotting attacks in Norway and other European countries, Italian police said.
The planned attacks involved Norwegian and British diplomats, according to Italian police.
Ahmad has served several prison sentences in Norway in recent years, including for praising the jihadist killings of staff at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris in January 2015.
In 2012, a Norwegian court jailed Ahmad for two years and ten months for threatening Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg.
