Jordan Times
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Alleged Al Qaeda
operative charged with murder of Jordanian driver
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) prosecutor
on Monday officially charged Ziyad Khalaf Karbouli and 13 other Iraqi nationals
with the murder of a Jordanian citizen in Iraq in September 2005.
The defendants were also charged with plotting subversive acts that led to the
death of an individual, possessing explosives (rockets) with illicit intent and
belonging to an illegal organisation (Tawhid and Jihad) affiliated to the Al
Qaeda network in Iraq.
Karbouli, 23, is the only suspect in police custody. The others will be tried in
absentia.
Karbouli appeared on Jordan Television in May 2006 and confessed to shooting
Jordanian driver Khaled Dasouqi and kidnapping two Moroccan diplomats in the
neighbouring country last year.
Karbouli, described as a local leader of Al Qaeda “in charge of war bounties” in
the Iraqi town of Rutba near the Jordanian border, also confessed to kidnapping
a senior Iraqi official and looting trucks travelling from Jordan to Iraq,
according to the charge sheet.
Also known as Abu Huthaifa, Karbouli used his job as a customs clearance
official at the Jordan-Iraq border to carry out his crimes, which also included
participation in killing three Iraqi national guardsmen, said the charge sheet.
The suspect said a person he identified as Nabhan had kidnapped Dasouqi “for
collaborating with the Americans.”
“I received instructions from [military leader] Yasser Mahmoud Harbi [also known
as Abu Obaida] that any apprehended Jordanian should be brought to Al Qaeda
hideouts,” Karbouli was quoted as saying in the charge sheet.
Karbouli said he was ordered by another Al Qaeda military commander, Yousef
Ramlawi, or Abu Azzam, to kill Dasouqi.
Karbouli ordered Dasouqi out of the car and informed that he was going to kill
him, the charge sheet said.
“Dasouqi pleaded for his life but Karbouli did not listen to him and asked him
to recite verses from the Koran then shot him twice in the head and left him
there, blindfolded and his hands tied behind his back,” according to the
prosecution.
Karbouli rolled him over to make sure he was dead and placed the victim’s
passport and papers on his body and left, the charge sheet added.
Dasouqi is survived by his two wives and their five children.
A General Intelligence Department unit, backed by special operations forces,
arrested Karbouli in an operation ordered by His Majesty King Abdullah.
Karbouli was also charged by the prosecution with shooting and injuring
Jordanian driver Mohammad Mayyas in March 2006. Mayyas was on his way to Iraq
with some relatives at the time of the incident.
The prosecution also charged Karbouli and the rest of the defendants with
attempting to attack Jordanian oil tankers on the Jordanian-Iraqi border using
rockets and explosives and plotting to loot Jordanian trucks carrying goods to
Iraq.
Also Monday, the SSC prosecutor charged four Jordanian men with plotting
subversive acts against Internet and videogames shops in March 2006 in Maan.
The four men, including one who remains at large, are charged with plotting
terrorist acts and manufacturing explosives with illicit intent.
The charge sheet said the men decided to bomb and burn an Internet and
videogames shop located in Maan “because the shops were bringing moral
destruction and deterioration to the city.”
The four men manufactured an explosive device and placed it in one of the shops
located next to each other on March 1, the charge sheet said.
The device did not explode so the suspect set the shops on fire, the charge
sheet added.
Both cases are expected to be referred to the SSC within the next few weeks, a
senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.