Kuwaiti national Hachem al-Mutairi, who is on the terrorist list of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, was released on December 28 after three days in detention in Turkey, news website 10 Harbor said. reported on Friday.
Mutairi was sentenced to life imprisonment in Kuwait in 2017 for inciting rebellion and espionage, and has been living in Istanbul since 2018. He was detained in Istanbul for deportation on December 25 and released on December 28. , according to 10Haber.
After Osama bin Laden’s death in 2011, Mutairi issued a statement celebrating the al-Qaeda leader’s jihad against the West.
Mutairi also has ties to al-Qaeda financier Abdul Rahman bin Omail al-Nuaimi, who is on UN and US sanctions lists. Since 2006, Mr. Mutairi has served on the board of the Global Campaign Against Aggression, of which Mr. Al Nuaimi is the executive director.
According to 10Haber, Mutairi also has close ties to Hajjaj bin Fahd al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti national who funds the Syrian jihadist group al-Nusra. Azimi said in a statement that Mutairi gave $300,000 to support a jihadist group in Syria.
Mr. Azimi is considered a terrorist by the United States, the United Nations Security Council, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and is on Interpol’s wanted list.
Mutairi, along with Yasin Aktay, deputy leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), visited Mehmet Gelmez when he was head of Turkey’s Directorate General for Religious Affairs (Diyanet). Mutairi reportedly lectures at several universities in Turkey, one of which is Necmettin Erbakan University in Konya province.
10 Haber said it remains unclear whether Al-Mutairi, who is recognized as one of the leaders of the Salafist movement in the Middle East, will be deported.
Mutairi’s books published in Turkey, Ehli Sünnet ve Ümmet Projesi (The Plan of Ahl al-Sunnah wal Jama’a) and Hürriyet ve Tufan (Freedom and the Flood), focus on the concept of jihad and It should be done when there is a political vacuum as to what is being explained.