AMMAN, 18 October 2004 — Jordan yesterday charged Iraq’s most wanted man Abu Mussab Al-Zarqawi and 12 other suspects of plotting attacks in the kingdom, including a plan to blow up the intelligence headquarters with a chemical bomb.
State security court prosecutor Mahmud Obeidat leveled seven charges against the group, including “conspiracy to commit terror attacks in Jordan,” making explosives and possession of weapons, according to the charge sheet.
The group, nine of whom are behind bars, were also accused of membership in an illegal organization named as Kataeh Al-Tawhid (Unification Brigades) and of links to Zarqawi, according to a copy of the charge sheet obtained by AFP.
The 13 men, including four Syrian nationals, face the death penalty if convicted. Judicial sources said the trial was expected to begin in November and added that Obeidat will present today the case formally to the state security court, a military tribunal, which will set the date.
The charge sheet says that Zarqawi, one of four fugitives in the case, initially ordered in writing Jordanian ringleader Azmi Jayussi to assassinate Obeidat and an unnamed intelligence officer.
Jayussi and his associates failed to kill the prosecutor and the officer and suggested instead a rocket attack on the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat from the nearby Jordanian port city of Aqaba, but Zarqawi ruled this out.
Jayussi then proposed an attack against the Movenpick Hotel in Aqaba, pointing out in a message to Zarqawi, that the beachfront resort was a favorite among Western diplomats.
Again Zarqawi ruled out the target and ordered Jayussi to prepare to hit the intelligence headquarters in western Amman, the charge sheet said. The Jordanian authorities announced in April they foiled the plot against the intelligence headquarters, and said it was part of a larger conspiracy to attack the prime minister’s office as well as the US Embassy in Amman.
But they did not then provide details on those last two targets and nor yesterday’s charge sheet mention them. In April Jordanian officials said the plot involved attacking the intelligence department using trucks loaded with 20 tons of chemicals that could have killed 80,000 people and injured 160,000 others.
But they did not specify the type of chemicals they said the suspects had bought on the local market. Jordan’s state television also aired taped testimonies of Jayussi, and other suspects, in April in which the ringleader said he was trained in Afghanistan by Zarqawi and met him later in Iraq, where they planned the operation.
