Jordan Times
Thursday, March 4, 2004
Prosecutor seeks death for 13 charged with plot to attack US embassy
AMMAN (AFP) — Jordan's State Prosecutor Mahmoud Obeidat on Tuesday called for the death penalty for 13 people, including three fugitive Saudis, whom he accused of plotting attacks on US interests here, judicial sources said.“The accused agreed to carry out military attacks against air bases which would have undermined the security and stability of the country,” Obeidat said in a written statement to the State Security Court.
He said the death penalty should be handed out for these “dangerous crimes,” according to the statement obtained by AFP.
Obeidat accused the 13 men, on trial at the tribunal since Sept. 29, of “conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks” as well as “possession of unlicensed explosive material.”
The defendants were charged in August with planning to carry out armed operations against Americans in Jordan, with the US embassy in western Amman on their list of targets.
Police said they found rocket propelled grenades and explosives in their possession.
Most have pleaded not guilty.
One defendant pleaded guilty at a hearing in October and told the court that after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, he and three others planned to go to Afghanistan “to train for the jihad,” or holy war.
Zuhair Chdeifat said one of the Saudi suspects was to have taken them to Afghanistan but instead put them in contact with a Jordanian man, identified as Abu Obeida.
“Abu Obeida asked us to transport weapons from Baghdad to Amman, which I did along with three of the accused,” Chdeifat said in October.
He said they successfully smuggled 20 bombs and rocket propelled grenades into Jordan “believing they were for defending the Kingdom.”
“But Abu Obeida convinced us to go after American targets in Jordan as part of our own jihad,” Chdeifat said.
The chief suspect in the trial, Mohammad Shalabi, also known as Abu Sayyaf, is also accused by the authorities in a separate case of leading a failed bid to kill the police chief of the southern city of Maan in November 2002.
Heavy fighting involving Jordanian army troops and Shalabi was caught days before the start of the trial.