Shiite cleric whose arrest triggered uprisings last year freed, aides say

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=3719968

(Baghdad, Iraq-AP, Aug. 14, 2005 1:15 PM) _ A Shiite cleric whose arrest last year triggered the bloody uprising led by radical Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr was released Sunday after more than a year in jail on murder charges, two al-Sadr aides said. snip

He didn't give a reason for the release. Officials at the ministries of Justice and Interior said they had no information on the report.

Al-Yacoubi, al-Sadr's top lieutenant, and al-Nouri were both detained in April 2004 in the killing the year before of a rival cleric, Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Khoei, in Najaf shortly after American forces seized the city in the invasion of Iraq.

Al-Yacoubi's arrest and the closing by U.S. authorities of al-Sadr's newspaper triggered two major uprisings that engulfed Shiite areas of central and southern Iraq. Several thousand people were killed before the rebellion was finally suppressed in August of last year.

[annabanana]

1. It this maybe linked to the fact that Bagdad's Mayor is now

a Shi'ite cleric?