Al-Qaeda terrorist Jamal al-Badawi, who particpated in the attack on the USS Cole and has a bounty on his head from the United States, surrendered to authorities in Yemen—and was promptly released after making a promise not to do any more nasty terror stuff: Revolving Door Justice For Al Qaeda In Yemen.

Witnesses said Badawi — who featured on a US list of most-wanted terrorists with a five-million-dollar bounty on his head — had been allowed to return to his home in the southern port city of Aden.

Badawi, one of 23 suspected Al-Qaeda militants who escaped from a prison in the Yemeni capital in February 2006, “gave himself up to security agencies,” an interior ministry official said in a statement. He was sentenced to death in September 2004 for the 2000 bombing of the US Navy destroyer Cole off Aden, which was claimed by Al-Qaeda, but an appeals court later commuted the sentence to 15 years in jail.

A witness in Aden told AFP that Badawi had returned to his home two days ago amid reports in the neighbourhood that authorities had allowed him to go home in return for a pledge not to engage in any violent or Al-Qaeda-related activity.