Radical cleric free after not-guilty verdict

AMMAN — Radical cleric Abu Qatada was released from prison Wednesday after the State Security Court cleared him of charges of plotting to carry out terror attacks against Westerners in Amman, according to his lawyers.

Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Othman, was pronounced innocent Wednesday from involvement in the so-called millennium bombings, a plot to carry out Al Qaeda-inspired attacks against Westerners across Amman in the late 1990s, his lawyers said Wednesday.

In its verdict, the court omitted crucial evidence given by alleged co-conspirators, citing Article 24 of a joint extradition agreement between Jordan and the UK barring the admission of testimony given under duress. 

Reading the verdict, presiding judge Ahmed Qatarneh ordered Othman’s immediate release.

“He was finally released from Muwaqqar prison. After suffering for 17 years in detention in Jordan and UK he is a free man,” Ghazi Thneibat, one of Abu Qatada’s lawyers, told The Jordan Times on Wednesday.

“All charges were dropped for insufficient evidence,” said Thneibat.

Musa Abdullat, another member of the defence team, said: “This is testimony to the impartiality of the Jordanian judicial system.” 

Othman, who is a vocal critic of the Islamic State, was acquitted in June of other charges in a separate terrorism case in which he was accused of masterminding a series of attempted bombings of Western diplomatic sites across Amman.

Tears rolled down the outspoken cleric’s face as the verdict was read. Known for his occasional courtroom outbursts and political commentary, the 53-year-old simply clasped his hands and silently said “God is great” as he was led out of the defendant’s cage.

Although released, “Abu Qatada remains subject to deportation order and a United Nations travel ban”, UK Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire said in a statement carried by several news agencies. 

“He is not coming back to the UK,” Brokenshire said in the statement.

Commenting on the issue, British Ambassador in Jordan Peter Millett (@PeterMillett1) tweeted that “Abu Qatada’s acquittal by an independent court draws a line on a case where UK-Jordan relationship worked to the benefit of both countries.”

Wednesday’s decision marked the end of a decade-long legal odyssey for Othman, who was detained several times in his adopted homeland of Britain throughout the 2000s for his alleged links to Al Qaeda.

British courts had charged Othman with acting as Al Qaeda’s spiritual leader and key recruiter in Europe, with judges describing the cleric as a  “truly dangerous individual” and “Osama Bin Laden’s right hand man in Europe” for his statements justifying jihad. 

However, the EU human rights court blocked the British government’s attempts to deport Othman over concerns of his ability to receive a fair trial in Jordan and the possible admission of testimonies obtained through torture. 

Othman, his family and defence team say the cleric has received no ill treatment while in Jordanian custody.   

An extradition agreement inked by Jordan and the UK in July 2013 — the key legal document which eventually led to the cleric’s release — paved way for his deportation in August 2013. 

Abu Qatada had previously been tried in absentia in 1999 for his alleged role in the reform terror plot, with the court handing down a life sentence. 

Abu Qatada’s release also serves as a boon to supporters of Al Qaeda and its Syria branch Jabhat Al Nusra, which has been embroiled in a losing struggle with the Islamic State over the global jihadist movement.

An outspoken critic of the Islamic State, Abu Qatada often used his trial as platform to attack the jihadist movement, declaring the movement’s recently formed caliphate as “illegitimate” and urging jihadist fighters to abandon what he described as “deviants from Islam”.

More recently, Abu Qatada denounced the movement’s beheading of Western journalists and described the Islamic State as a “bubble set to burst”.