Shaukat Hussain Guru, a convict in the 2001 terrorist attack on parliament, was released from Tihar jail here on Wednesday, a year ahead of his 10-year sentence because of remission. He is a cousin of Afzal Guru who has been sentenced to death in the case and awaiting the president's decision on his clemency petition.

Shaukat, along with Afzal and S A R Geelani, a lecturer in Delhi, was sentenced to death by the trial court on December 16, 2002 within a year of the foiled terror attack on December 13, 2001.

The Delhi High Court upheld the death sentence of both Gurus in October 2003 while acquitting Geelani on the ground that proof based on phone tapes was insufficient for his conviction.

Shaukat ultimately got relief in 2005 from the Supreme Court that overturned the death sentence and 12 charges slapped on him and reduced the conviction to 10 years while upholding the death sentence on his cousin Afzal and okaying Geelani's acquittal.

Another petition filed by Shaukat in August 2007 for reversing the conviction was admitted by the Supreme Court but later rejected.