Mikael Davud

Born Muhammed Rashidin,[1] an ethnic Uyghur from the Xinjiang province in China, Davud came to Norway in 1999 as a refugee and was granted Norwegian citizenship in 2007.[2] He changed his name to Mikael Davud the same year, in 2007.[3] He has been described as deeply religious and to have refused to learn the Norwegian language for perceived religious purposes.[2] In the 1990s he studied at a Quran school with alleged ties to the Taliban in Karachi, Pakistan.[2] His activities in Pakistan and China's subsequent demand for extradition caused Davud to flee to Norway as a refugee in 1999.[2]

As part of the investigation of a suspected terror plot revealed in 2010, Davud was reportedly subjected to the "full arsenal of surveillance" of the Norwegian Police Security Service (PST).[4] After cooperation with US and British intelligence, Davud was thought to be the leader of a Norwegian Al-Qaeda cell,[2] with connections to the terror network responsible for the 2009 New York City Subway and United Kingdom plot.[5] Evidence included series of emails, and having received bomb-making training abroad.[6] He is suspected of having had direct contacts with the commander of the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), and Al-Qaeda tops like Saleh al-Somali thought to have ordered the attacks.[7][8]

Davud is alleged to have spent five months at an Al-Qaeda training camp in the Waziristan region in Pakistan from 2008 to 2009, although he himself claims to have received training in Iran and in Turkey as part of a solo terror plot to bomb the Chinese embassy in Oslo.[4][9] Considered the ringleader, he was convicted to seven years in prison by the Oslo District Court for conspiracy to commit terror by plotting to bomb the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten and/or shoot cartoonist Kurt Westergaard.[4] His solo terrorist claims, which would have avoided the stricter anti-terror law sentencing associated with conspiring with at least one other person, was dismissed by the court.[10] His accomplice Shawan Bujak was sentenced to three and a half years, while the third suspect David Jakobsen was acquitted for terror charges due to having contacted and assisted PST.[4] The verdicts were upheld following appeals to the Borgarting Court of Appeal and finally the Supreme Court of Norway, while Davud's sentence was raised to eight years.[11][12]

In 2016 Davud sued the Norwegian state, demanding to be released on probation as he had served two thirds of his sentence, claiming good behaviour.[13]