Jordan Times
Monday, March 13, 2006
Four men receive 10-year
prison terms for plotting attacks
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Sunday
sentenced four men to 10 years in prison each after convicting them of plotting
attacks against hotels, tourist sites and security officers in 2005.
The tribunal first handed down the death penalty to Osama Abu Hazeem, Hatem
Ensour, Mohammad Arabiat and Yazan Haliq, but immediately commuted the sentence
to 10 years imprisonment for each defendant, “to give them a second chance in
life.”
A fifth defendant, Mohammad Qteishat, who is at large, received a life sentence.
The court also convicted the defendants of conspiracy to carry out terrorist
attacks and possessing illegal explosives with illicit intent.
“I am really shocked and disappointed with this harsh and unjust verdict and I
plan to appeal it,” the defence attorney, Hikmat Rawashdeh, told The Jordan
Times yesterday.
Rawashdeh charged that the court ignored all the evidence “submitted by the
defence team, which proved that the defendants confessed under torture and
duress and were denied legal representation during interrogation.”
The five defendants were friends, according to the charge sheet, and in 1999
Haliq travelled to Syria to study there and met with individuals who promised to
help him infiltrate into Iraq and fight there.
Abu Hazeem went to Syria four years later and also met someone who said he would
facilitate his entry to Iraq to fight there, the charge sheet added.
Abu Hazeem returned to Jordan and asked Ensour and Arabiat to join them, the
charge sheet added.
Ensour then infiltrated into Iraq in mid-2003, where he met with Qteishat and
trained on the use of weapons, explosives and detonators, the charge sheet
added.
In September 2004, Abu Hazeem travelled to Syria and received training on
explosives and also managed to smuggle detonators when he returned to the
Kingdom the same month, the charge sheet said.
Meanwhile, Haliq went to Lebanon in January 2005, where he received training on
the use of guns, machineguns and explosives, after which he returned to the
Kingdom, said the charge sheet.
The group then decided to target three luxury hotels frequented by tourists,
General Intelligence Department (GID) officers and tourist sites, the charge
sheet added.
The four men were arrested in February 2005 before carrying out any of their
alleged plans, according to the charge sheet.