Al-Qaeda ideologue released from custody in Jordan

Jordanian authorities on Thursday released Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue who was arrested in October.

His release comes just a day after the execution of two of Maqdisi’s fellow travellers, Sajida al-Rishawi and Ziyad Karboli, reportedly in retaliation for execution by the Islamic State (IS) group of a Jordanian pilot Muaz al-Kassasbeh.

A Jordanian security source told Reuters that the cleric’s release had been ordered by the state security prosecutor, though the reason is not immediately clear.

"Al-Barqawi had already been released today after he was arrested over charges of using internet to abet terrorist groups," Moussa Al-Abdallat, a lawyer for the Salafist Movement in Jordan, told The Anadolu Agency.

"After 100 days of detention, my client has returned home after he was released due to the lack of evidence," he added.

The Jordanian authorities are yet to comment on the lawyer's assertion.

Al-Maqdisi was arrested late October, only a few months after he was released by the Jordanian authorities after years of imprisonment on terror-related charges.

Maqdisi was originally a guru to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the late leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq – predecessor to IS – but later renounced violence.

Maqdisi, along with similarly “reformed” former al-Qaeda ideologue Abu Qatada and New York attorney Stanley Cohen, was previously involved in failed negotiations to try and free captured US aid worker Peter Kessig (known as Abdul-Rahman Kassig after a conversion) from IS.

Though he previously referred to IS as a “deviant organisation” he has also refrained from criticising IS due to the fact that there is now a “crusader campaign against Muslims”, referring to the bombings carried out by the US-led coalition.