Jordan Times
Wednesday, January 5, 2005
Group charged with plotting subversive acts in Jordan
AMMAN — Four terror suspects were charged Tuesday with plotting subversive acts against security personnel and tourists in Jordan.
Suleiman Hassan, 28, Omar Roumi, 26, Riyad Jamil, 29, and Ahmad Mohammad, 51, were also charged by State Security Court (SSC) Prosecutor Mahmoud Obeidat with possessing an automatic weapon with illicit intent.
In his three-page charge sheet, Obeidat said the four Jordanians, who embrace takfir thoughts (labelling people as apostates), talked about the need to kill “foreign and Jewish” tourists visiting various areas of the Kingdom.
The group also planned to attack General Intelligence Department (GID) personnel and vehicles, according to the charge sheet.
To carry out their attacks, the group bought a machinegun, two handguns and 81 live bullets. The authorities arrested the men in August and September, according to the sheet. A judicial source told The Jordan Times that the defendants are expected to stand trial at the SSC within the next few weeks. Dabbas denies knowing Zarqawi In another development, a 24-year-old citizen, standing trial on charges of plotting subversive acts against Jordanian targets in Iraq with Abu Mussab Zarqawi, retracted on Tuesday his previous confessions and told the court he did not know Zarqawi. “I never met Zarqawi and only knew of him through the television,” Al Miqdad Mohammad Dabbas told the SSC in a written statement.
Dabbas also claimed that he was “subjected to torture and duress by security officers and forced into signing a confession for something that he did not plot.” But a security witness last week testified that the defendant was not subjected to any form of torture or duress. Dabbas is standing trial along with Zarqawi, who is being tried in absentia, on charges of plotting terror acts. The US has placed a $25 million bounty on Zarqawi. Dabbas' lawyer Amjad Khreisat told The Jordan Times that he plans to summon five defence witnesses, including relatives of the defendant, prison inmates and a GID officer.
Presiding Judge Fawaz Bqour adjourned the session until next Tuesday to start hearing the defence witnesses in the case. According to the charge sheet, Dabbas befriended Zarqawi during a visit to Iraq in 2002 and pledged obedience to him. Zarqawi asked Dabbas to examine Jordanian targets in Baghdad including the embassy and the military attache's office in order to bomb the two buildings, according to the charge sheet. “Dabbas monitored the premises and provided Zarqawi with detailed security information,” the charge sheet added. The Jordanian embassy in Baghdad was subjected to a terrorist attack in August 2003, which left 14 dead and dozens injured. The prosecution charge sheet made no links between that attack and the defendants' alleged plans.