Jordan: [Al-Qaida 'Palestinian'] Militant Sentenced for Attack

AP ^ | 11/04/07

[Posting]

Jordan: Militant Sentenced for Attack

By JAMAL HALABY – 4 hours ago

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Jordan's military court convicted an al-Qaida militant Monday of involvement in the deadly suicide car bombing of the Jordanian Embassy in Iraq in 2003 and sentenced him to death.

Muammar Ahmed Yousef al-Jaghbeer, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, was arrested in 2005 upon his return from Iraq and charged with the embassy attack, which killed 19 people.

Al-Qaida in Iraq, which was then headed by Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for the attack. The court dropped charges against al-Zarqawi on Monday, citing his death in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq in June 2006.

Sporting a long beard and a navy blue prison uniform, al-Jaghbeer seemed aloof as the military judges read his verdict. Fathi al-Daradkeh, al-Jaghbeer's lawyer, said his client will appeal the ruling.

Military prosecutors said at the outset of the trial in February 2005 that al-Jaghbeer had confessed to his involvement in the suicide bombing. But the defendant claimed his guilty confession was extracted from him under torture and duress.

In a testimony to the court, al-Jaghbeer said he was in the Iraqi city of Mosul when the attack occurred and that he learned about the bombing during questioning by Iraqi and American officials in Iraq.

Al-Jaghbeer is also on trial in the same military court in a separate case involving a 2002 al-Qaida-linked attack that killed U.S. aid worker Laurence Foley, who was gunned down outside his home in Jordan's capital, Amman. The assassination plot was also blamed on al-Zarqawi.

Al-Jaghbeer's verdict in Foley's slaying is expected in the next few weeks.