A friend of internationally wanted criminal Rawa Majid was shot on the orders of a rival, after helping the gangster escape from Turkey to Iran, a Norwegian court has heard.
The 37-year-old victim was shot eight times but survived after being lured to the town of Moss, about 60km south of the capital Oslo.
Majid was raised in Sweden by Iraqi-Kurdish parents. He controls the Foxtrot crime gang and was this year placed under sanctions by the US and the UK for carrying out attacks for Iran on Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe.
A former associate of Majid, 49, is on trial after being accused of carrying out the shooting, which he denies. Neither of the men's names have been revealed during the court proceedings.
The trial heard the man charged over the shooting previously worked with the victim to help Majid escape Turkey, after a price of up to €4 million ($4.7 million) was placed on his head by his rival, Ismail Abdo.
Prosecutors allege the gunman switched sides and went from helping Majid, nicknamed the Kurdish Fox, to shooting the gangster's friend on the orders of Abdo.
He fell out with his one-time friend and associate Abdo, who runs the Rumba gang and is known as Strawberry, resulting in a bitter personal feud and battle for the drugs trade. Shootings and bombings between the sides, often carried out by children recruited by the gangs, have shattered Sweden’s image as a peaceful country. Abdo’s mother is among those who have been killed.
Majid fled Sweden and settled in Turkey, where he was able to acquire citizenship through buying property, allowing him to avoid extradition to face drug trafficking charges.
A Swedish prosecutor previously confirmed to The National that the gangster has now also left Turkey.
The trial in Norway was played a recording of the police’s interrogation of the alleged gunman, during which he revealed how he and the victim helped Majid to escape, the country’s national broadcaster NRK reported.
At that point there was a price on Majid’s head, so he wanted to leave Turkey, the court heard. He initially looked to bribe police officers who were to smuggle him across the border into Iraq's Kurdistan region.
“But halfway through he called me and said he didn't trust the police any more, so he wanted to leave them,” the accused told Norwegian investigators.
Majid then made contact with the two men and they stayed in a rented apartment in the south-eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir for three or four days, the VG news outlet reported. All the while, the gangster was on his phone, afraid that his rival would track him down.
After getting across the border, Majid decided it was not safe for him to be in Iraq's Kurdistan region either. Before Majid parted company with the accused, the gangster handed him a Rolex watch worth about $120,000, as well as $20,000 in cash and a gold chain. The chain was for him and the rest was to be delivered to Majid’s mother in the Kurdistan region.
The gangster then crossed into Iran, where his family lived after fleeing Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1980s. They were later granted asylum in Sweden.
The accused said Majid “liked me and had a lot of respect for me”, but he admitted to Norwegian police that he was also in touch with Abdo.
Prosecutors say the victim of the shooting followed Majid into Iran and were arrested and taken to a military prison. Majid’s relatives then came with $60,000 to get him out of jail. The accused told investigators that Majid is now in Afghanistan.
The trial at Sondre Ostfold District Court is expected to last until the end of October.
