CAIRO?An Egyptian teacher accused of plotting a Christmas bomb attack in the southern Philippines arrived back in Cairo on Wednesday, an AFP reporter said.

Sheikh Mohammed al-Sayyid Ahmed Mussa told reporters at Cairo airport he had been acquitted by a court in the Philippines, and accused the authorities there of mistreating him.

"I was blindfolded and thrown into a car that took me to jail," Mussa said, adding that he had been insulted and beaten. Mussa also described an incident in which a soldier pushed his boots into his face.

Mussa was initially freed on bail in December and released into the custody of the Egyptian embassy in Manila.

Described by Cairo as an envoy of Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning Al-Azhar, Mussa was arrested on December 18 during a raid on a flat in the Mindanao southern city of Cotabato where he was a visiting professor at the Majad Islamic School.

Authorities alleged he planned to detonate an explosive device which was seized in his room.

Among items police said were recovered from his room was a booklet on the organization of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a rebel group that has been fighting to set up an Islamic state in the southern Philippines.