Jordan Times
Monday, July 10, 2006
Prosecutor seeks death
penalty for Rishawi
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) prosecutor
on Sunday asked the military tribunal to hand eight people the death sentence
for their part in the Amman hotel bombings last November.
Only one Iraqi woman, Sajida Rishawi, was arrested in connection with the
attacks, while the remaining seven defendants — including the late Abu Mussab
Zarqawi — are being tried in absentia on the same charges, which included
plotting terrorist acts and possessing explosives with illicit intent.
Zarqawi’s Al Qaeda in Iraq group claimed responsibility for the triple hotel
bombings that killed 60 people last year.
“These defendants have become a scourge that has spread destruction, corruption
and death in our country,” the prosecutor said during his closing argument
yesterday.
“The best way to defend Jordan is to get rid of them and hand them the
punishment they deserve, execution,” the prosecution added.
The defendants used explosive belts that contained a huge number of ball
bearings to cause a high number of casualties, injuries and damages to the
targeted properties, the prosecution said.
Also during yesterday’s 60-minute session, Rishawi retracted her previous
confession, claiming that she was subjected to physical and mental torture to
admit to being part of the plot to attack the hotels.
She also denied any knowledge of the plan by her husband, Ali Hussein, and two
other Iraqi men to execute suicide bombings of the three major hotels.
Within days of her marriage to Hussein, Rishawi entered Jordan with her husband
but “did not know the reason for the visit,” she told the court.
She told the court that when she asked Hussein why, “he told me we are here for
few days and we will return to Iraq soon.”
In a televised confession on Nov. 13, the day of her arrest, Rishawi said she
and her Iraqi husband married to come to Jordan with two other Iraqi men and
launch terrorist attacks against major hotels.
Rishawi said she and Hussein each wore explosives belts and headed to the
Radisson SAS Hotel on Nov. 9, where her husband blew himself up, while the other
two men detonated their belts at the Hyatt and Days Inn hotels.
On the day of the attacks, Rishawi maintained, Hussein threatened to leave her
if she did not wear the explosives.
“I did not object because I was a stranger here and did not know what else to
do,” she added.
She said she followed her husband to the hotel and when she heard an explosion
she left quickly and headed to a relative’s house in Salt where she hid the
explosives belt under her bed.
“I had no intention of detonating myself and I am not guilty,” Rishawi, who
stood calmly in the dock, told the court.
Last week, an explosives expert told the court that Rishawi did in fact intend
to blow herself up and had pulled the pin to detonate the device but failed.
“The belt did not explode because of a technical failure and not because Rishawi
did not know how to use it,” the prosecution witness told the tribunal.
Rishawi’s court-appointed lawyer Hussein Masri is expected to present his
closing arguments on Wednesday.