A security source told Reuters that Jordanian authorities released al-Qaeda spiritual leader Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi on Thursday.
According to the source, al-Maqdisi was released on orders by the state security prosecutor after having been arrested last October.
Last year Oraib al-Rantawi, director-general of the Amman-based Al-Quds Center for Political Studies and expert on Islamic movements, told Al-Monitor, “Maqdisi is highly respected by jihadists, and not only in Jordan, as he used to be one of the prominent thinkers of al-Qaeda and Salafist jihadists worldwide,”
It remains unclear why al-Maqdisi was released days after Daesh burned Jordanian pilot Muath al-Kasasbeh in Raqqa.
