Ahmed Daqamseh, a Jordanian soldier convicted of killing seven Israeli schoolgirls on March 13, 1997, is seen at Um Alluol prison in the city of Mafraq, Jordan, August 7, 2012. Picture taken August 7, 2012. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
Amman: A Jordanian soldier who killed seven Israeli schoolgirls while they were on a school trip to Jordan in 1997 was released on Sunday after serving 20 years in prison, a relative told AFP.
"The authorities released Ahmad Dakamseh this Sunday around 1:00 am after he finished his jail term. He is now a free man," his cousin Mohammed Yahya Dakamseh told AFP by phone.
Ahmad Dakamseh was released from the Bab al-Hawa prison in Irbid, 90 kilometres (60 miles) north of the capital Amman.
In March 1997, he fired an automatic weapon at Israeli schoolgirls on a trip to the Jordan-Israel border, killing seven of them and wounding five others and a teacher.
He had been sentenced to life imprisonment.
It was never clear what motivated Dakamseh, who was 30 at the time and a married father of three.
King Hussein condemned the attack and later travelled to Israel to offer his condolences to the families of the murdered schoolgirls. Jordan also paid compensation.
