Jordan Times
Tuesday, March 8, 2005
Group accused of plotting
anti-US, Israeli attacks go on trial
ZBy Rana Husseini
AMMAN — Fifteen people standing trial at the State Security Court (SSC) for
plotting subversive acts against American, Jewish and General Intelligence
Department targets in the Kingdom last year, on Monday pleaded not guilty and
abstained from appointing lawyers to defend them.
The group is also charged with possessing unlicensed weapons.
They pleaded not guilty in their opening trial, and did not respond to a
question posed by SSC Presiding Judge Fawaz Bqour on whether they had appointed
lawyers to defend them.
The court decided to proceed with the case and adjourned the session until next
Monday to start hearing prosecution witnesses.
A judicial source told The Jordan Times on Monday that the court could proceed
with the trial without appointing lawyers because the charges carry a maximum
punishment of 15 years imprisonment.
The defendants were identified in the charge sheet as Abed Shehadeh, 50, Ahmad
Yousef, 20, Ahmad Mukhles, 19, Muhannad Yassin, 18, Saber Mohammad, 20, Mohammad
Khader, 19, Mohammad Abdul Karim, 24, Imaddin Ibrahim, 29, Ahmad Bashir, 30,
Abdullah Mohammad, 28, Hussein Abdullah, 20, Mohammad Ahmad, 26, Mohammad Kamel,
27, Abdullah Ali, 33, and Ahmad Fayez, 30.
A 16th suspect, Khalid Fawzi, is being tried in absentia on the same charges.
The charge sheet said Shehadeh, lived in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan between
the years 1979 and 1990.
When he came to Jordan, the charge sheet added, he started giving religious
classes in Irbid mosques and attacked Arab regimes.
He managed to recruit the rest of the defendants through his religious classes
and the group collected money and bought weapons, the charge sheet said. They
planned several attacks against the American and Israeli embassies in Amman, a
GID officer, a local journalist, a hotel and a school in Irbid, the director of
the Jerash Festival Jeries Samawi, and an American group that performed in the
Jerash Festival in July 2004, according to the charge sheet.
In a second-high profile case, a 28-year-old man who was sentenced to death in
absentia in 2003 for plotting subversive acts in the Kingdom and is currently
being retried at the SSC, on Monday pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Mustafa Siam, 28, was sentenced to death by the State Security Court in April
2003 for his role in an attack against GID officer Lt Col. Ali Burjaq in Jabal
Amman, which left two people dead.
He was handed over to the Jordanian authorities by American forces in Iraq last
year.
The prosecution also charged that Siam received military training in
Afghanistan.
“I was not in Jordan at the time of the attack and have never been to
Afghanistan in my life. I was arrested by the American forces in Iraq on Aug.
15, 2003 and detained in the airport and Abu Gharib prison,” Siam said in his
two-page defence statement.
The defendant charged that he was subjected to all forms of torture while he was
at Abu Gharib prison and lost half his body weight.
“I was placed in a coffin for over a month, then I was locked in a small dark
cell. I was naked and was one of the people in the photos that were printed in
the international press,” Siam charged.
Siam said he was handed over to the Jordanian security forces on March 30, 2003
and was “subjected to all forms of torture and duress and was very weak and
could not think properly... My confessions in front of the state prosecution are
not correct. I do not know Ali Burjaq and I do not believe in spilling Muslim
blood,” Siam said in his statement.
Siam was part of a group of seven men who were convicted by the tribunal of
carrying out terrorist attacks that led to the loss of life, manufacturing
explosive materials, withholding information from authorities and offering
refuge to a wanted person.
Four defendants, including Ahed Abdullah who was tried in absentia as well,
received the death sentence while the rest received prison terms ranging from
life to one year in prison with hard labour.
The main suspect in the case, Mohammad Arafat was sentenced to death for
planting a home-made bomb under the car of Burjaq's wife, which detonated in
February 2001, killing two passersby. His sentence was reduced to life in prison
after he was granted a Royal amnesty.
Defence Attorney Younis Arab asked the court to summon the two main defendants
in the case, Mohammad Arafat and Mohammad Shabaneh, to testify in the case.
The tribunal agreed and adjourned the session until next Monday.
Also Monday, the SSC adjourned the case of four men accused of plotting
subversive acts against security personnel and tourists in the Kingdom, until
March 14 because the prosecution witnesses failed to appear in court.
Suleiman Hassan, 28, Omar Roumi, 26, Riyad Jamil, 29, and Ahmad Mohammad, 51,
are also charged with possessing an automatic weapon with illicit intent.
The four accused pleaded not guilty to all charges on Feb. 21. According to the
charge sheet, the four defendants are accused of plotting to kill “foreign and
Jewish” tourists in the Kingdom and General Intelligence Department personnel.
The men were arrested in August and September last year.