Red notice issued for husband of Istanbul suicide bomber: Norwegian prosecutor

İpek Yezdani - ipek.yezdani@hurriyet.com.tr ISTANBUL

Norway issued a red notice and international arrest warrant for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-connected spouse of the Sultanahmet suicide bomber Diana Ramazova in July 2014, the Norwegian prosecutor in the investigation has told daily Hürriyet.

Anne Karoline Bakken Staff, the prosecutor heading the investigation into Abu Aluevitsj Edelbijev, the Chechen-rooted Norwegian citizen and spouse of Diana Ramazova, the suicide bomber who detonated herself in the touristic Istanbul neighborhood of Sultanahmet on Jan. 6, said the Norwegian Police Security Services started an investigation into Edelbijev in 2013.

Edelbijev is believed to have joined ISIL, and all his assets and bank accounts were frozen in October 2014 due to terror charges, Bakken Staff said.

“We have information that Edelbijev was killed in Syria, but we have no definite evidence. Now we know that he had a [religious] marriage. We already knew that he was married but we didn’t know the name of his spouse. We had an international arrest warrant and red notice put out for him in July 2014,” she added.

Bakken Staff did not want to comment on whether they had cooperated with the Turkish police forces in this specific investigation.

“I don’t want to comment on who we are cooperating with. But if there is an international arrest warrant, all the police would be familiar with this,” she added.

According to Turkish security forces, Edelbijev left Turkey to fight alongside ISIL in Syria in July 2014. It is not clear whether Edelbijev was in Turkey or in Syria when the red notice and international arrest warrant for him was issued.