JEDDAH, 13 August — Jordanian authorities have released Salman Al-Auda, a leading Saudi preacher, and Khaled Al-Qafari, who accompanied the scholar, after the two were arrested at their hotel room in Amman on Sunday.
Al-Auda was in Jordan to attend a cultural function organized by the country’s professional unions. The arrest came just two hours before he was to deliver a lecture on “Jihad and terrorism.” He returned to the Kingdom yesterday.
Abdul Wahab Al-Terairy, a spokesman of the Saudi scholar, said the arrest was to show that Al-Auda was a persona non grata in Jordan. The Jordanian agents had also confiscated the scholar’s mobile telephone card.
The unions’ head Hashem Gharaybeh said the unions had presented a list of names of invited guests, including those of Salman and Tunisian opposition leader Rashed Al-Ghanushi, to the Jordanian authorities for clearance before the event.
The authorities turned down Ghanushi’s name because he represents the Tunisian opposition, Gharaybeh said, adding that there was no official ban on any others.
Jordan’s professional unions, which has around 120,000 members, often clash with the authorities over permission to hold rallies and marches usually in protest at Israeli and US policies in the Middle East.
