AMMAN, 3 May 2006 — Jordan’s State Security Court here yesterday decided to jail 10 Islamists for terms ranging between two and five years with hard labor after it found them guilty of plotting attacks against Jordanian intelligence officers and US targets, according to judicial sources. However, the tribunal acquitted seven suspects of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated cell known as the “Group of 17,” for lack of evidence, the sources said. One of the acquitted suspects was a Syrian national, the sources said.
According to the indictment list, the 17 defendants were charged with conspiracy to stage attacks against Jordanian intelligence officers and US forces involved in the training of about 32,000 Iraqi troops and policemen in Jordan. All key members were arrested in 2005 before carrying out the planned operations.
The SSC decided to jail the alleged group leader, Moatassem Suleiman, for five years with hard labor. According to the charge sheet, Suleiman was arrested in Saudi Arabia in 2002 and deported later to Jordan for involvement in fundamental activities. He later traveled to Iraq and Syria where he tried to recruit volunteers for launching attacks against US troops in Iraq.
The men shouted slogans in the court after the verdicts were read. “God is our Lord and the tyrant is their master,” they howled, accusing the United States of playing “master” to Jordan’s judges and government, a moderate Arab regime with strong ties to the US and Israel. All 17 have been in custody since their arrests in police sweeps across Jordan last July. The men, ages 22 to 36, wore long beards and stood in the dock with their feet shackled during yesterday’s 15-minute hearing.
They were charged with an array of different counts, including conspiring to commit terrorism and attempting to harm Jordan’s relations with a foreign country — a reference to Iraq, where the suspects allegedly planned suicide operations against US forces but did not manage to travel there.
All 17 pleaded innocent at the start of their trial last September. Some then told the court that they believed jihad “isn’t a crime.” They also accuse the Jordanian government of being an “infidel” and a “puppet” of the US. One of those found guilty, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin identified as Loa’i Abu-Na’meh, is said to have been associated with an unnamed Syria-based contact of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to the indictment. Abu-Na’meh was sentenced to four years in prison.
