AMMAN, 21 January 2004 — Jordan’s state prosecutor Mahmud Obeidat yesterday called for the death penalty for 11 people on trial over the murder of a US diplomat in 2002. “The crimes carried out by the accused were aimed at undermining Jordan’s security and stability, and they are among the ugliest and most dangerous of crimes,” Obeidat told the state security court.
“They have killed the American diplomat in the name of Islam, but Islam has nothing to do with them and their ugly crimes. Such people harm the reputation of Islam and Muslims,” he said, according to a copy of his closing statement.
Obeidat urged the court to issue death sentence against the defendants for “plotting to carry out terrorist activities leading to the death of an individual” as well as illegal possession of weapons.
The court will meet again on Feb. 15 to hear the defense lawyer’s closing statement. Lawrence Foley, 62, a US Agency for International Development (USAID) official, was shot eight times outside his Amman home on Oct. 28, 2002, as he was getting into his car to go to work.
Only five defendants, including suspected ringleaders Salem Saad Salem bin Suwed, a Libyan national, and Yasser Fathi Ibrahim Freihat, a Jordanian, have attended the hearings and all of them have pleaded not guilty.
The suspects still at large are three Syrians, a Palestinian and two Jordanians, including Fadel Nazzal Al-Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi. Late last year the United States offered up to $5 million for information leading to Zarqawi’s arrest for having “a long-standing connection to senior Al-Qaeda leadership”.
Meanwhile, the lower house of the Jordanian Parliament voted to reject a government-backed financial package proposing a 9 percent hike in fuel prices and raising sales tax by 3 percent, according to media reports yesterday.
The Monday night vote surprised the government as it took place while more than 40 deputies of the House of Representative’s 110 members were absent.
“The vote means that the state’s budget deficit will increase, because the 2003-2004 budget projections took into consideration the application of the financial package,” Finance Minister Mohammed Abu Hammour said.
Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal Fayez earlier urged the house to approve the blueprint. He said it was necessary for cutting the budget deficit to bring it in line with International Monetary Fund (IMF) rules, and for removing “certain distortions” in the country’s economic cycle caused by subsidization of oil derivatives.
He said that his government was also under pressure from the international community and donors to remove such distortions.
