Hakem Al Mutairi, a Kuwaiti citizen on the terrorist lists of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, was released on December 28 after spending three days in Turkish custody, the 10Haber news website reported on Friday.
Mutairi, who was sentenced to life in prison in Kuwait in 2017 on charges of inciting people to revolt and espionage, has been living in İstanbul since 2018. After he was detained in the city for deportation on December 25, he was released on December 28, according to 10Haber.
Following the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011, Mutairi issued a statement congratulating the al-Qaeda leader on his jihad against the West.
Mutairi is also associated with Abdul Rahman bin Omair Al-Nuaimi, an Al-Qaeda financier on the United Nations and United States sanctions lists. Since 2006, Mutairi has served as a member of the board of trustees of the Global Anti-Aggression Campaign, of which Al-Nuaimi is secretary-general.
According to 10Haber, Mutairi also has close ties with Hajjaj bin Fahd al Ajmi, a Kuwaiti national who finances the jihadist group Al Nusra in Syria. Ajmi said in a statement that Mutairi had given him $300,000 to help jihadist groups in Syria.
Ajmi is considered a terrorist by the US, the UN Security Council, Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia and is on INTERPOL’s wanted list.
Together with Yasin Aktay, a deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Mutairi visited Mehmet Görmez back when he was the president of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet). Mutairi reportedly gave lectures at several universities in Turkey, one of them being Necmettin Erbakan University in Konya province.
10Haber said it remains unclear whether Mutairi, who is recognized as one of the leaders of Salafist movements in the Middle East, will be deported.
Mutairi’s books published in Turkey, “Ehli Sünnet ve Ümmet Projesi” (The Project of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jama’ah) and “Hürriyet ve Tufan” (Freedom and Deluge), focus on the concept of jihad and explain what should be done in the event of a political vacuum.