External support for violent extremism means helping extremist groups or individuals with funds, training, supplies, safe places or ideas that come from outside their home country. This support often pushes certain political or strategic goals by spreading extremist beliefs.
The case of Bijan Pooladrag, involving covert networks operating in Albania under the influence of Iran, highlights elements of contemporary state-sponsored violent religious extremism. Pooladrag, an Iranian national, was arrested in Albania in 2020 and later sentenced to five years in prison for offering services to designated terrorist organizations and 10 years for participating in a terrorist organisation.17 He first arrived in Albania in 2010 as a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran, an organization that presents itself as a government-in-exile, but later became an operative for the Iranian Intelligence Ministry. The court found state-sponsored religious extremism and the discreet financial channels used to sustain such activities.18
17Vladimir Karaj, Albanian court sentences Iranian citizen on terrorism charges, Balkan Insight, 15 December 2022,
https://balkaninsight.com/2022/12/15/iranian-citizensentenced-in-albania-on-terrorism-charges/.
18 Vladimir Karaj, Albanian court sentences Iranian citizen on terrorism charges, Balkan Insight, 15 December 2022,
https://balkaninsight.com/2022/12/15/iranian-citizensentenced-in-albania-on-terrorism-charges/.