Jordan Times
Thursday, July 14, 2005
4 confess to plotting
terror attacks in Jordan Last year
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — Four out of nine defendants on trial for plotting subversive acts in the
Kingdom confessed Wednesday that they targeted the regime, government and
General Intelligence Department (GID) in 2004.
The nine are part of a group of 13 suspects, including fugitive Abu Mussab
Zarqawi, who were charged by State Security Court (SSC) Prosecutor Mahmoud
Obeidat of plotting what authorities described as the first-ever Al Qaeda
chemical attack in Jordan, uncovered in April 2004. Zarqawi and three Syrian
fugitives are being tried in absentia in the plot. Charges against eight of the
men include conspiring to commit terrorism, possessing and manufacturing
explosives and affiliation with a banned group, identified as Kataeb Al Tawhid
(battalions of monotheism). Security officials say the previously unknown group
is headed by Zarqawi and linked to Al Qaeda. If convicted, 12 of the men —
including Zarqawi — face death penalty. The 13th man is charged with the lesser
crime of assisting two fugitives.
At a SSC hearing yesterday, Azmi Jaiousi, one of the four defendants, told the
tribunal that he planned to use seized chemicals he possessed against targets
inside the Kingdom.
Jaiousi claimed that GID interrogators beat him and extracted his confession by
force. In April last year, he appeared on Jordan Television and described how he
and other members of the group plotted the attack with Zarqawi's support.
Defendant Anas Amin, a Syrian, told the court that Jaiousi taught him “how to
manufacture explosives and use them in attacks in Jordan.”
“I came from Syria to Jordan to fight the regime and its supporters because they
are secular and do not apply Sharia [Islamic law],” Amin said.
Syrian Ahmad Samir also admitted to targeting security officers and army
personnel in the Kingdom. On Wednesday, presiding Judge Fawaz Bqour asked the
prosecutor to consider pressing lèse-majesté charges against Amin and Samir.
Hassan Samik, the fourth defendant, said he targeted the GID because “it was
protecting the government that works to please the US and Jews.”
The remaining defendants of the nine men denied yesterday the charges against
them, claiming that they had nothing to do with the attempted attacks.
The trial is to resume in September.