Jordan Times
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
New trial date set in chemical
attack plot
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The State Security Court (SCC) announced a new date to resume the trial
of nine men accused of plotting the first-ever Al Qaeda chemical attack against
vital institutions in the Kingdom.
"Presiding Judge Fawaz Bqour set next Wednesday, Feb. 2, as the date to resume
the trial of the nine defendants," a senior judicial source told The Jordan
Times on Tuesday.
The nine men are part of a group of 13 suspects, including Jordanian fugitive
Abu Mussab Zarqawi, charged with plotting to carry out terrorist attacks,
possessing and manufacturing explosives with illicit intent, and possessing an
automatic weapon with the intent to use it illegally.
Zarqawi and three other suspects are being tried in absentia.
The trial was adjourned indefinitely in December after some of the defendants
rejected the court-appointed lawyers and demanded that the Jordan Bar
Association (JBA) appoint lawyers from the association to represent them.
JBA President Hussein Mjalli told The Jordan Times on Tuesday that the
association has named five lawyers to represent the defendants.
The names will be announced during Wednesday's session, Mjalli added.
If convicted of the charges, some of the defendants could face the death
penalty.
Other charges against the group include belonging to an illegal organisation,
Kataeb Al Tawhid (Battalions of Monotheism), which is believed to be linked to
Al Qaeda network, sheltering a wanted person and possessing unlicensed guns.
The prosecution charge sheet says the main suspect in the case, Azmi Jayousi,
left the Kingdom in 1999 for Afghanistan where he met Zarqawi and received
training in the manufacture of explosives and the use of detonators.
According to the charge sheet, Jayousi and some of the defendants, who belonged
to Kataeb Al Tawhid, decided to "terrify people by using cars laden with
explosives as a means to accomplish their goals."
One of their alleged plans was to target the General Intelligence Department,
according to the charge sheet.
The group's plans were foiled when in April and May 2004 the security forces
seized trucks laden with explosives, apprehended several suspects and killed
four others in a shootout in an Amman neighbourhood.