Albanian authorities arrested a local imam, Artan Kristo, on charges of inciting terrorist acts on Monday afternoon, in the port city of Durres. In a press statement, the General Prosecutor's Office, said that the investigation into Kristo's activities started in July and is ongoing, underlining that enough information had been gathered to warrant his arrest.Kristo, also know as Muhamed Abdullah, is accused of "publicly inciting and propagating terrorist acts". He is also charged with calling for jihad in the AlbSelafi.net online forum.
While historically Albanians have practiced a traditional, tolerant form of Sunni and Bektashi Islam, now a third, more radical school is gradually being introduced. According to observers, the Selefi sect of Islam, which currently enjoys the adherence of a small minority in Albania, associated with imams who mostly studied in the Middle East after the collapse of communism, has been persistently seeking to gain control of Albania's Muslim Community, AMC, the country's leading Islamic organisation.
Kristo had formerly worked in 2002 as a representative of the El-Haramain Foundation, an Islamic charity with alleged ties to Al-Qaida. The El-Haramain offices in Albania were closed in 2004 and the charity banned, after its inclusion on the US State Department's terrorist watch list.
Since the mid-1990s thousands of young Sunni Muslim Albanians have travelled to Arab and Asian countries on educational scholarships, with many returning to Albania having embraced different religious schools to the Hanefi, which is traditionally predominant in the Balkans. A secret service official in Tirana told Balkan Insight that the activities of "Islamic radicals were being closely monitored as a serious threat to national security." Albania's Secret Service, SHISH, has been closely cooperating with the CIA since the 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Centre.
Kristo was previously named as a suspect in the murder of the deputy-chair of the AMC, Salih Tivari, on January 13, 2003, and has been detained and questioned by police. Tivari, a 58-year-old lawyer, was shot twice in his office in Tirana. He was one of the most prominent Islamic leaders in Albania. No charges have been filed against Kristo in relation to the murder, and the identities of the assailants remains unknown.
On Monday afternoon, the online forum on which Kristo allegedly posted his calls for jihad, buzzed with activity after news of his arrest spread. "It's easily understood that this must be the work of the spies of the government that work against Islam," a member, 'Abu Fatima', commented. "Our brother imam Muhamed Abdullah has nothing to do with terrorism," wrote a second poster, 'Ebu Ensiah'. "[We] have never heard him backing terrorism or call for the overthrow of the state," the poster added.
"The slander against this respected imam is scandalous," wrote another, adding that "the forum was open and anyone could judge for himself if they were inciting terrorism".
Kristo also ran a separate web page for an Islamic ministry called Udhezimi dhe Drita (Direction and Light) and ran a You Tube channel where he posted his sermons.