Qatar-based cleric blacklisted by Saudi-led bloc removed from Interpol wanted list

Interpol has removed prominent cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi from its "wanted" list and dropped all international arrest warrants for him.

The organisation made the announcement in a statement late last month, without providing a reason for the move.

The office of the Qatar-based Egyptian cleric hailed the move in a statement on Wednesday as a "positive step" towards righting what it said was an unfounded measure taken against Qaradawi.

"We commend Interpol… for its commitment to the law, logic and international principles and urge it to review hundreds of names of honourable people on its wanted list who are being persecuted by authoritarian governments in their countries," the statement said.

Qaradawi was placed on a "terror list" by a Saudi-led bloc of countries boycotting Qatar at the start of the diplomatic dispute last June.

The Egyptian regime sentenced the cleric to life in prison in absentia and has been holding his daughter in solitary confinement for over a year.

The United Nations has urged Cairo to release Ola al-Qaradawi and her husband.

Egyptian authorities have accused Qaradawi of perpetrated a range of crimes - including murder and theft - after Egypt’s 2013 military coup, prompting Interpol to issue a warrant for his arrest.

Qaradawi - a vocal critic of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi - has been considered the spiritual guide of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

The Islamist movement has been heavily suppressed since the military coup against Egypt's first freely elected president Mohamed Morsi of the Brotherhood.

Egyptian authorities have killed and arrested thousands of the group's members, supporters and suspected sympathisers since Morsi's overthrow, which was led by Sisi.