A former confidant of Osama Bin Laden may look forward to a life of freedom. A military court in Jordan has acquitted Abu Qatada – possibly also because he has the “Islamic State” sharply criticized.

One of the most notorious supporters of the terrorist network al-Qaeda is released. A military court in Jordan Islamic preacher Abu Qatada acquitted of charges of plotting attacks against U.S. citizens and Israelis. He had been accused of having prepared in 2000, attacks against tourists and diplomats in Amman. The Islamist had always denied the allegations.

The 55-year-old comes from the West Bank. After Israel captured the area in 1967 and occupied, his family fled to Jordan. There Abu Qatada Islamist groups joined. He fled before 1993 the Jordanian authorities to Britain, where he was recognized a year later as a political refugee.

In London he rose soon to become one of the most influential jihadist preacher in Europe. Because of his hate speech in which he called the attacks by al-Qaeda well, he was arrested several times. He spent several years in prison.

Al-Qaeda Supporters:Abu Qatada denounces the “Islamic State”

By 2013, he succeeded and his lawyers successfully to prevent the deportation to Jordan. Only after the government in Amman promised in an agreement with London not to use evidence obtained under torture to justice, Abu Qatada was deported. Two convictions in absentia to life imprisonment raised the Jordanian judiciary also.

The sudden acquittal in the current method may be related to the struggle against the “Islamic State” in Syria and Iraq. In recent months, Abu Qatada has condemned the actions of the IS-terrorists multiple sharp. He was convinced that the organization must be defeated and will, he said during the process. “You can only kill and destroy but not build,” Abu Qatada said about the IS.

Jordan is next to the Arab Gulf States to US-led alliance that wants to stop the advance of the jihadists with air strikes.

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