Jordan Frees Leading Jihadist Ideologist

Jordan released a leading jihadist ideologist, who was once mentor to Iraq's now slain al-Qaida leader, on Monday after he completed a jail sentence for recruiting fighters for the Taliban, his lawyer said.

Issam Barqawi, known as Abu Mohammed al-Maqdessi, "was released from jail today and he is with his family now," lawyer Majed Leftawi told Agence France Presse.

One of Maqdessi's brothers said he had "just arrived home."

Maqdessi was jailed in 2011 for "recruiting people in Jordan to join the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as terrorist organizations."

He was also found guilty of "collecting funds for terrorist groups to carry out acts that would harm Jordan and its ties with other countries."

Maqdessi was a mentor to al-Qaida's infamous Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before the two men fell out.

Zarqawi achieved notoriety for a spate of videotaped executions of Western hostages in Iraq before his death in in a U.S. air strike northeast of Baghdad in 2006.

In 1992, Jordanian-born Zarqawi met Maqdessi and later joined his Sunni militant group Jaish Mohammed (Mohammed's Army).

The pair was detained in Jordan for five years for membership of an outlawed Islamist organization but freed as part of a general amnesty in 1999.

The two later fell out over "ideological differences," and aides said Maqdessi repeatedly denounced Zarqawi.

Maqdessi was arrested again in Jordan in 2005 after remarks he made to Al-Jazeera television, but was released in 2008 for "humanitarian reasons" after going on hunger strike.