Jordan Times
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Sajida pleads
‘not guilty’ in terror trial
Court says no to psychiatric evaluation
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — Would-be suicide bomber Sajida Rishawi,
standing for the November terror attacks, pleaded not guilty to the charges at
the State Security Court on Monday.
Her court-appointed defence lawyer Hussein Masri asked the tribunal to refer his
client to a committee of government physicians for psychiatric evaluation.
“My client was misled and did not realise what she was doing,” said Masri.
The attorney also asked the court for a minute of silence in memory of the
victims of the attacks and recited verses of Koran.
The court rejected his request for a psychiatric evaluation of the defendant.
“It was evident to the court that the suspect is sane and can stand trial,
therefore the court decides to reject the defence’s request and to proceed with
the trial,” the presiding judge said.
Masri told The Jordan Times last week that when he informed Rishawi she might be
executed, her reply was: ‘When are they going to deport me to Iraq?”
“Based on my interview with her, I do not think she is mentally sound. She also
told me she has a sister who suffers from a mental condition,” Masri added.
Rishawi is officially charged by the prosecution with plotting subversive acts
resulting in the death of an individual and possessing explosives with illicit
intent.
Jordanian fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi and six other men are being tried in
absentia on the same charges.
Meanwhile, the groom whose wedding was targeted during the Nov. 9 bombings
described the night as “bloody and crazy” during an emotional 25-minute
testimony.
“As I was approaching the wedding hall with my bride and other guests at the
Radisson SAS Hotel, I saw a flash and white dust filled the air. A second later
I heard an explosion,” Ashraf Daas recounted.
Daas, 32, the first prosecution witness to take the stand, described the terror
attack as “a crazy second in my life.”
“I saw the ceiling collapse on the wedding guests and I saw my father and father
in-law fall and die in front of my eyes,” he told the court.
Daas said he entered the wedding hall and saw body parts scattered everywhere
and “blood ... turning everything white in the hall to red.”
“I got married on Nov. 9, but today I can really celebrate my wedding after
seeing the suspects being tried for their crimes,” Daas told the court.
“The victim’s families and myself appeal to the court to impose the death
penalty on the suspects. The convicted should be hanged in public so that it
would be a lesson to everyone not to tamper with the security of the country,”
he added.
Rishawi, 35, confessed on Nov. 13 that she and three Iraqi men headed to three
major hotels in Amman on Nov. 9 with explosive belts wrapped around their
bodies. The three men, including Rishawi’s husband, detonated themselves at the
Radisson SAS, Hyatt and Days Inn Hotels, leaving 57 people dead and dozens
injured.
Rishawi attempted to blow herself up the same night at the wedding but the
explosives belt did not go off and she left shortly after her husband exploded
himself.
Around 260 people were invited to the wedding on the night of the terrorist
attack. Of the 27 people who perished at the Radisson, 17 were Daas’ relatives,
eight were family members of the bride, one was a hotel employee, and another a
member of performing dabkeh group, Daas told The Jordan Times.
Khalid Salameh, 30, who also took the stand on Monday, said he was in charge of
the Daas-Alami wedding at the Radisson SAS on Nov. 9.
“...When I entered the hall I realised that it was much more serious and bigger
than a kitchen explosion,” Salameh said.
“There were 11 chandeliers hanging in the hall and they all fell on the guests
when the ceiling collapsed, the witness told the court, going on to describe the
carnage in the wedding hall.
Days Inn Hotel security guard Hussein Tawrah informed the court that he spoke to
whom he believed was the suicide bomber minutes before the explosion that killed
three Chinese citizens. “There was an Iraqi man who was acting weird inside the
hotel so I asked him what he wanted. He said he wanted to drink orange juice at
the bar but they would not give him the juice,” Tawrah said.
The 43-year-old witness said he then asked the man to leave the hotel and few
minutes later he heard a loud bang.
“I looked outside and there were three Chinese men dead, and another one
screaming,” the witness said.
The men were part of a 35-member Chinese military delegation on a visit to the
country, Tawrah added.
During his testimony yesterday, Hyatt Hotel employee Sharif Jalad told the court
how he became temporarily deaf the night of the explosion.
“I was walking in the hall and all of a sudden everything became dark then
white. The ceiling came down and fire engulfed a section of the hotel. I lost my
hearing for a while,” he said.
The tribunal adjourned the session until next Monday when it will hear more of
the prosecution’s 29 witnesses listed in the charge sheet, including police
officers, coroners, and hotel guests and employees.