Jordan Times
Monday, October 24, 2005
Two men sentenced to jail for plotting attacks
AMMAN (JT) — The State Security Court on Sunday
sentenced two Jordanians, accused of plotting attacks in Israel and against
tourists in the Kingdom, to five years hard labour, judicial sources said.
Three other defendants were given reduced sentences for seeking to recruit
militants to train in Syria and Lebanon, while a fugitive in the case was
sentenced to five years for the same offence, seen as a plot to undermine
Jordan's ties with a foreign country, the sources said.
The court acquitted two defendants in the trial, which opened in May, of any
wrongdoing, Agence France-Presse reported.
Fugitive Abdul Muti Abdul Aziz Abu Moeleq, who was tried in absentia, is said to
be hiding in Syria. He was already sentenced to death in 1997 for assassinating
a Jordanian diplomat in Beirut in 1995.
The toughest sentences were handed down to alleged ringleader Ali Omari and
Mohammad Jundi accused by the tribunal of “plotting to carry out terrorist
activity” in Israel and against tourists in Jordan, AFP said.
The defence lawyer said he would appeal the verdict.
The suspects told the court in June that they made their confessions under
duress and denied the charges against them.
The defendants embraced takfiri thoughts (labelling people as apostates) and in
November 2004 talked about the need to kill “foreign tourists visiting various
areas in the Kingdom,” the charge sheet said.
Some of the defendants recruited others to join the Islamic Jihad Movement and
planned to launch military attacks against a restaurant frequented by foreigners
in Qanater village near the town of Husn.
Other targets included Joud Hotel in Irbid as well as tourist buses in various
areas in the Kingdom, the charge sheet added.
Some of the defendants travelled to Syria and Lebanon in October 2004 to
attended courses on the manufacture of explosives and use of weapons, the charge
sheet said.
However, the authorities arrested the men before they carried out any of their
alleged plans.