Radical cleric Abu Qatada has been acquitted of charges of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism by Jordan's state security court. Qatada, real name Omar Mohammad Othman, spent a decade fighting the British authorities’ efforts to return him to Jordan. He had been accused of plotting two al-Qa'ida-style terror attacks against Western targets in Jordan in the late 1990s. The 53-year-old was cleared by a panel of civilian judges sitting at the State Security Court in Amman. The Islamist preacher had previously been sentenced in absentia by a Jordanian court to life imprisonment for conspiracy to carry out al-Qa'ida-style attacks against the US and other targets inside US ally Jordan. Thursday's session was a retrial in which the prosecution had argued he was a mentor to jihadist cells in Jordan while he was in Britain, providing spiritual and material support to a campaign of violence during the late 1990s. But the court quashed the conspiracy charges on Thursday due to a lack of sufficient evidence. It postponed another hearing on the New Year plot charges until 7 September. Qatada was first arrested by the UK over alleged terror connections and was put on trial in July 2013 after a special treaty was signed between the UK government and Hashemite Kingdom guaranteeing his right to a fair and open retrial. Since his voluntary arrival in Jordan in July, Qatada has been on remand at the high security Muwaqqar jail outside Amaan. It is home to 1,000 inmates, many of them accused of terrorism In December Abu Qatada's lawyer called for his client's release, saying his rights had been violated by the presence of the military judge in court and reliance on evidence that was extracted under torture from other defendants. He will continue to be held because of separate charges related to a plot to attack tourists during Jordan's New Year celebrations in 2000.
