Jordanian Ex-Qaida Mentor back in Jail

Jordan on Monday arrested a former Al-Qaida mentor for propagating "terrorist" ideas, only four months after releasing him from jail for recruiting militants, a judicial source said.

Issam Barqawi, who was once mentor to Iraq's slain Al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was jailed after the state prosecutor accused him of "using the Internet to propagate the ideas of the terrorist group Al-Nusra Front", the source said.

Barqawi, who is known as Abu Mohammed al-Maqdessi, will be held in custody for 15 days as part of the investigation, the source said.

Al-Nusra Front is Al-Qaida's Syria franchise.

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

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.

On June 16 he was released from jail after completing his sentence.

Barqawi was a mentor to Jordanian-born 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 a U.S. air strike northeast of Baghdad in 2006.

The pair met in 1992 and Zarqawi later joined Barqawi's Sunni militant group Jaish Mohammed (Mohammed's Army).

Later they were jailed in Jordan for five years for belonging to an outlawed Islamist organisation but freed as part of a general amnesty in 1999.

Barqawi 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.

A relative expressed "surprise" following news of the latest arrest, saying it came as Barqawi had gone to hospital after suffering neck pain.