Jordan Times
Monday, November 1, 2004
Man jailed for financing
Zarqawi
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Sunday sentenced a 34-year-old man to
six months in prison for collecting funds for fugitive militant Ahmad Fadel
Khalayleh, better known as Abu Mussab Zarqawi, to carry out armed insurgency in
Iraq.
The same tribunal acquitted Bilal Mansour Hiyari of conspiracy to carry out
terrorist activities in the Kingdom for “lack of evidence.”
“The court concluded that the defendant did not plot with anyone else to carry
out terrorist activities against the Jordanian state,” presiding judge, Fawaz
Bqour, read from the 11-page verdict.
Bqour added that the court found that the defendant met Zarqawi in Iraq in 2003
and the two agreed that Hiyari would collect money for the militant to fight the
US forces there.
“The defendant returned to Jordan without seeking to conduct any military
operations that would threaten the security and stability of Jordan,” the court
said.
Hiyari, who pleaded not guilty to the charges, denied knowing Zarqawi or having
any links with him during a previous court session.
Hiyari's lawyer Hamad Emoush described the verdict as just and an indication of
the “impartial judiciary system in Jordan.”
Emoush told The Jordan Times that his client was to be released yesterday
because he has already spent the six-month period.
Hiyari has been detained since May 16, 2004, and each month of prison accounts
to 21 days, according to Emoush.
The prosecution charge sheet said Hiyari visited Zarqawi in Iraq and Afghanistan
in 2003, and was asked by him to return to the Kingdom and collect money for
operations in Iraq and Jordan.
The defendant returned to Jordan, met one of Zarqawi's aides in Amman and gave
him $3,000 to buy a car for Zarqawi in Iraq, the sheet added.
Zarqawi was sentenced to death by the SSC in April 2004 in connection with the
murder of US diplomat Lawrence Foley in 2002.
He is also wanted for allegedly funding the first-ever chemical attack in the
Kingdom against the General Intelligence Department, the Prime Ministry and the
American embassy.