Norway: Police to drop charges against imam accused of beating students

Norway: Police to drop charges against imam accused of beating students

In the beginning of June, imam Ghulam Nabi (51) was charged with violence against several children at the Koran school in the predominantly Pakistani mosque Islamic Culture Society Buskerud & Vestfold.

Now the police told Dagbladet that the imam can go free, since they don't have any evidence against the imam other than witness interrogations.

The head of the investigative team at Drammen police, Ole Johan Brett, told Drammens Tidende that they're dependent on evidence in order to get to trial.

The police in Drammen got several tips against the suspected imam. Additional several people were brought in for questioning. Yet it is difficult for the police to find out what happened during classes. The reason is that those who were questioned differed on the practice of violence and none of the statements spoke about what happened in class.

Ole Johan Brett says that the interrogation did not bring the police closer to an outcome.

The mosque's spokesperson Baddar Jamil Kiani told VG Nett that it was expected, and that there's nothing more to say on the case.

The police thinks it was still worth it to charge the imam with violence. Ole Johan Brett told Dagbladet that regardless whether the case is dismissed due to the lack of evidence, he thinks they got what they wanted. "We sent a clear signal on what type of acts we don't want in Norway."

Mosque spokesperson Kiani believed the whole time in the imam, who rejected the police's suspicions as pure fabrication.

"We understand that the police had to respond when somebody came with such serious accusations, but at the same time we keep to what we said the whole time. We believe what he says completely until the evidence will show otherwise."

He says the regardless of the police investigation, the mosque now started an initiative to improve koran education. For example, they set up parental contacts, groups, meetings with the parents, and base themselves more on the Norwegian school model.

Kiani thinks the police came out unnecessarily harshly against imam Ghulam Nabi and fear that the mosque will be negatively characterized. The spokesperson says that it was as long as there was no strong evidence, it was unnecessary to come out so harshly. It just causes prejudices and they were afraid he would be condemned in advance.

He stresses that he doesn't think that the police treated the mosque particularly badly because they are Muslims. "That's what happens to cases which explode in the media, people are pre-judged. It's people we're talking about."

Ghulam Nami's lawyer is sure that this case would never have become an issue if the imam would have been a Norwegian teacher.

The imam was suspected after the police got reports that Nabi hit students with a stick at the Koran school of The Islamic Culture Society Buskerud & Vestfold.

Lawyer Svein Duesund told VG Nett that he got the case documents from the police, and that none of the children or parents who were questioned by the police said that the imam practiced beatings. In order to protect the students at the Koran school, they were not interrogated by the police.

He thinks the police never had cause to suspect Nabi, and that the reports the police received were based on rumors.

"This case is based on reports the police got from one person, who spoke to another person, who think he heard of things going on at the Koran school. That's the whole starting point for the investigation. It would never have happened with a Norwegian teacher," says the lawyer.

He thinks there's no doubt that the police overreacted and prejudged the imam when they went to the press about the Koran school. Duesund says that the police got a letter from former students of Nabi who claims that they had a good and safe environment with the imam as teacher.

The police doesn't want to currently answer to the lawyer's statements. Ole Johan Brett told Drammens Tidende that due to confidentiality issue he can't talk about details of the investigation.

In June Ghulam denied the charges of violence. "I didn't beat anybody. I can't understand why anybody will accuse me of hitting children," he said when VG NETT met hem in the mosque in Fjell.

The imam felt then he was pre-judged by hateful rumors and negative media descriptions.

"I'm concerned about the accusations of the police. I've done nothing wrong. The media blew this case out of proportions," he added.

One of teh results if the imam were to be sentenced in a court case is that the Islamic Culture Society Buskerud & Vestfold (ICS) can lose state support.

The police have thought for a long time that he's exposed students to violence during Koran classes. He supposedly beat their fingers or back with a stick if they came too late, read the Koran wrong or were a disturbance.

Already in 2002 the police got the first reports about this. New reports about violent punishments came in 2007. Then the community received guidance from "Alternativ til vold" (alternative to violence). The police didn't conduct further investigation until they again got tips of violence in spring.

The police got legal permission to search the mosque. They found nothing that could hurt children.

Sources: VG 1, 2; Drammens Tidende 1, 2 (Norwegian)

See also: Norway: Imam arrested for beatings at koran school