Jordan Times
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Trial of suspect in
Foley case begins
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Tuesday began trying a 34-year-old
man, who was sentenced to death in absentia in April 2004 by the same tribunal,
after being convicted of plotting the murder of US diplomat Laurence Foley in
October 2002.
Muamar Ahmad Jugheiber was arrested in Iraq in May 2004 by US forces and handed
over to the Jordanian authorities.
“The tribunal decided to postpone the case until next Monday, Feb. 21, to
appoint a lawyer to defend Jugheiber through the Jordan Bar Association,” a
judicial source told The Jordan Times.
Jugheiber is accused of plotting subversive acts that led to the death of an
individual.
The new prosecution charge sheet said Jugheiber was given $44,000 by fugitive
Ahmad Fadel Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab Zarqawi, to give to some of the
defendants to commit subversive acts in the Kingdom.
Foley, 60, was gunned down outside his Amman home on Oct. 28, 2002.
The prime suspects in the case, Libyan Salem Ben Suwayyed and Jordanian Yasser
Freihat, were sentenced to death by the tribunal for carrying out terrorist acts
that caused the death of a person and possession of an unlicensed automatic
weapon.
Five other defendants, including Zarqawi, were sentenced to death in absentia by
the tribunal on the same charges.
The court said the defendants conspired to carry out attacks against US and
Israeli targets in Jordan, including plans to attack a military airport in
Amman. They also targeted General Intelligence Department (GID) officers.
Lawyers appointed
Also Tuesday, the SSC appointed lawyers to represent four men who are standing
trial on charges of 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 with possessing an automatic weapon with illicit intent.
The tribunal appointed Hussein Masri, Mohammad Huneiti, Malek Taleb and Ala
Etoum to represent the defendants in the case and adjourned the session until
next Monday, Feb. 21.
“We asked the tribunal not to read the defendants' charges and to give us time
to read the case files, and the court agreed,” Masri told The Jordan Times.
The four Jordanians, who embraced takfir thoughts (labelling people as
apostates), talked about the need to kill “foreign and Jewish” tourists visiting
various areas of the Kingdom, according to the prosecution charge sheet.
The group also planned to attack GID personnel and vehicles, the charge sheet
said. To carry out their attacks, they bought a machinegun, two handguns and 81
live bullets.
The authorities arrested the men in August and September last year, according to
the sheet.
New verdict to be issued in millennium plot case
In another terror-related case, the SSC adjourned the trial of 10 men to issue a
new verdict.
The men were convicted in 2000 and 2005 of plotting subversive acts against US
and Israeli targets in Jordan and belonging to Al Qaeda network. The group were
also convicted of possessing explosive devices and weapons, conspiring to carry
out bombings during New Year celebrations in the Kingdom and attacking Christian
religious sites and Israeli targets.
Khader Abu Hoshar and Usama Husni were sentenced to death while the other eight
defendants received prison terms ranging from life to seven-and-a-half-years in
prison.
However, the Court of Cassation overturned their verdicts twice and sent the
case back to the State Security Court for a retrial, stating that some of the
defendants' convictions should have been included in a 1999 Royal amnesty.
The SSC had maintained in its verdicts that the defendants were guilty “because
they continued their illegal activities after the Royal amnesty was issued.”