Jordan Times
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
17 suspects plead not guilty
in opening trial
AMMAN (AFP) — Sixteen suspects and a Syrian linked to Al Qaeda's frontman in
Iraq, Abu Mussab Zarqawi, pleaded not guilty of plotting attacks in the Kingdom
at the start of their trial on Monday.
The state prosecutor has accused the 17 men of conspiring to carry out
“terrorist acts” against Jordanian anti-terrorism officers and US forces
training Iraqi troops in the Kingdom.
The suspects, rounded up in July, were also accused on two counts of carrying
out and plotting activity aimed at undermining Jordan's relations with another
country, according to court papers.
The charge sheet, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, said the suspects were
recruiting fighters and raising funds for Zarqawi's insurgency group in Iraq.
They all pleaded not guilty when the president of the State Security Court read
out the charges at the start of the trial, judicial sources said. The suspects
face up to 15 years of hard labour if found guilty.
The trial is set to resume Oct. 3.
According to the charge sheet, alleged mastermind Motasem Suleiman was arrested
in 2002 in Saudi Arabia and deported a year later to Jordan for trying to preach
Islamic radicalism.
A year after the start of the US-led war on Iraq in April 2003, Suleiman went to
Iraq to fight US troops and actively tried to recruit fighters.
“In June 2005, the suspects agreed to carry out suicide bombings in Iraq and
Suleiman got in touch with followers of Zarqawi in Syria,” the charge sheet
said.
Zarqawi, a fugitive who has a $25 million bounty on his head, was sentenced to
death last year for the 2002 murder of a US diplomat in Amman.