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Cleric Abu Qatada cleared of terror plot, freed by Jordan court
Radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada speaks to the media after he was acquitted at the State Security Court in Amman, September 24, 2014. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
24/09/2014
AMMAN (Reuters) - A Jordanian court acquitted radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada on Wednesday of charges of providing spiritual and material support for a plot to attack tourists during New Year celebrations in 2000, a judicial source said.
Jordan's state security court ruled that the charges lacked sufficient evidence, the source said.
The source said the cleric was expected to be freed as soon as today.
Qatada was extradited from Britain last year after a lengthy legal process and was acquitted in June in a separate case of charges of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism. That acquittal was also based on lack of evidence.
Wednesday's session was a retrial in which the prosecution had argued the cleric was a mentor to militant cells in Jordan while he was in Britain, providing spiritual and material support to its followers during the late 1990s.
(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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