By Saddam al-Yahiya
AMMAN
Hardline Muslim preacher Omar Othman, aka Abu Qatada, walked free on Wednesday after a Jordanian court acquitted him of terror charges and ordered his immediate release.
Abu Qatada left Al-Muwaqqar Prison in southern Amman to find his family waiting for him outside.
Once he stepped outside, he knelt before his father and kissed his feet, said an Anadolu Agency correspondent who was at the scene when the radical preacher was released.
Speaking to AA, Abu Qatada voiced happiness about his release and reunion with his family.
Asked about Jordan's participation in an ongoing U.S.-led air offensive against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Syria, Abu Qatada voiced hope that "Muslims would avoid sedition and be granted victory over their enemies."
He declined to make any further statements.
Earlier in the day, Jordan's State Security Court found Abu Qatada not guilty of planning attacks on tourists in Jordan during New Year's celebrations in 2000.
It was the last trial for Abu Qatada, who was earlier exonerated of other terrorism charges in a separate trial in June.
Abu Qatada, who adheres to a strict Salafist-Jihadist ideology, was granted political asylum by the U.K. in 1994.
British authorities, however, have sought his deportation for the past several years.
Last December, the 54-year-old cleric was deported to Jordan to face charges in connection with past terrorist attacks in the Hashemite kingdom.
In 1999, a Jordanian military court sentenced Abu Qatada to death in absentia for his role in several attacks, including one on the American School in capital Amman the same year.
The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment with hard labor.
Another Jordanian court later sentenced him to 15 years in prison for plotting attacks in 2000.
The controversial cleric has now been cleared of all charges against him.
www.aa.com.tr/en
