Following last week's deadly Chattanooga shootings in which five U.S. service members were killed by a Muslim man, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, Jordanian authorities quickly arrested Abdulazeez's uncle out of suspicion that he was involved in the attacks or somehow connected to terrorism.
Assad Haj Ali, an American citizen and uncle of the 24-year-old shooter, managed a telecommunications firm in Jordan that had previously employed Abdulazeez during a sabbatical he took last year to overcome drug and alcohol problems, reported The Associated Press.
Abdulazeez was killed by police last week following a shooting spree at two military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn. that resulted in the death of four Marines, one Navy sailor and the gunman.
The FBI analyzed Abdulazeez's electronic devices and found that he conducted online research for militant Islamist "guidance" on committing violence that he believed would wipe away his sins and fare him well in an afterlife. U.S. investigators have become increasingly convinced that Abdulazeez was religiously radicalized by Ali, according to The New York Times.
Jordanian security officials took Ali into custody for interrogation the day after last week's attack, before releasing him and then detaining him again. Ali's computer and telephones were also confiscated for further evaluation, and FBI agents were dispatched to Jordan to question him.
The lawyer for Abdulazeez's family, Abdul Kader al-Khateeb, described the interrogation as standard procedure, but said that Ali's prolonged detention was not warranted because he has no ties to terrorism and "had no role in anything he (Abdulazeez) did in the United States."
Khateeb said that he and Abdulazeez's family have been prohibited from visiting Ali, according to the Guardian.
"We are calling for his release because there is no evidence against the uncle," Khateeb told the Guardian. "it is an arbitrary arrest simply due to his relationship."
He claimed that neither the uncle nor the gunman were religious or political.
"The family is shocked because they didn't expect him to do this," Khateeb said, adding that the attack had not been pre-planned with his uncle. "He is an ordinary person and wasn't religious."
