AMMAN, 15 May 2008 — Jordan’s State Security Court (SSC) yesterday sentenced three people to 15 years in jail with hard labor after condemning them of attempt to assassinate US President George W Bush during his visit to the country 18 months ago, judicial sources said.
The tribunal first issued death sentences against the three defendants — Nidal Momani, 29, Sattam Zawahreh, 28 and Tharwat Darraz, 24 — but decided to commute the verdicts to 15 years in jail to “give them a chance to correct themselves,” the sources added.
According to the charge sheet, the three Jordanians came up with the idea of “exploding the US and Danish embassies in Amman and plotting to assassinate President Bush during his visit to Jordan on Nov. 30, 2006.”
The three defendants were arrested on Nov. 28, 2006 in the city of Zarqa, 30 kilometers East of Amman, two days before Bush’s arrival in Amman to meet with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki.
The Danish Embassy in Amman was a target for the three suspects against the backdrop of the printing blasphemous pictures by a Danish newspaper in September 2006 that were deemed sacrilegious by Jordanians and other Arabs and Muslims. Security officials said the three were arrested two days before they planned to attack Bush.
