Jordan Times
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Witness gives testimony on discovery of explosives belt
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — A relative of alleged would-be suicide bomber Sajida Rishawi testified at her trial on Monday that he found an explosives belt hidden under her bed in his house three days after the November bombings.
Rishawi is officially charged with plotting terrorist acts in connection with the Nov. 9 attacks on three of the capital’s hotels, which left 60 dead and around a 100 injured.
She is also charged with possessing explosives with illicit intent.
Jordanian fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi and six other men are being tried in absentia on the same charges.
“On Nov. 9, Sajida Rishawi came to my house in Salt at around 10:00pm and asked if she could stay over for a while... she told me she had information about my daughter-in-law and grandchildren in Iraq,” Mohammad Arabiat told the State Security Court yesterday.
The witness said his son Nidal, who died in Iraq, was married to Rishawi’s sister and he had no news about his daughter-in-law or grandchildren.
The 58-year-old witness said Rishawi told him she had come to Jordan with her husband for medical treatment and that her husband stayed on in Amman to work because he needed to make money before undergoing the medical checkups.
On the third day, Arabiat added, “I went to her room to get something and I found a strange object with wires under her bed.”
“I asked Sajida about it and she told me it was an explosives belt and that she came to Jordan with three other men to launch a suicide attack,” Arabiat told the court.
The witness said Sajida told him she went with her husband to a banquet hall in one of the hotels and left straight after he blew himself up.
“I immediately alerted a relative of mine, who was then working at the General Intelligence Department (GID), and he came to my house and arrested Sajida,” Arabiat said.
His relative, Brigadier General Abdul Rahim Arabiat, who also gave testimony on Monday, recounted the sequence of events in Salt on Nov. 13.
“When Mohammad Arabiat informed me about the explosives belt I headed to his house, searched the defendant and contacted the GID technical team to dismantle the belt,” Abdul Rahim Arabiat told the court.
The GID officer said Rishawi told him the explosives belt belonged to her and that she tried to blow herself up on Nov. 9 but it failed to detonate, then her husband kicked her out of the banquet hall and blew himself up.
Concord Hotel Manager Raed Samir, who also testified for the prosecution on Monday, said three Iraqi men rented a room at the hotel on Nov. 5.
He identified them as Ali Hussein, Safa Mohammad and Ruwad Jassem.
On Nov. 13, the authorities identified the three men as the perpetrators of the triple suicide bombings, which targeted the Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels in the capital.
In a live confession aired on Jordan Television, Rishawi said she married her husband to enter Jordan and launch a suicide attack. She said her explosive belt failed to detonate as her husband blew himself up at the Radisson SAS Hotel.
Rishawi pleaded not guilty to the charges in her opening trial last month.
The tribunal adjourned the session until Monday to hear more prosecution witnesses.