MEN CONVICTED IN FOLEY ASSASSINATION, CAR BOMBING

UNCLAS AMMAN 006212 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER ASEC JO SUBJECT: MEN CONVICTED IN FOLEY ASSASSINATION, CAR BOMBING FACE RE-TRIAL IN JORDAN REF: AMMAN 2645 ¶1. (U) Jordanian officials on July 20 announced that two Jordanians who were sentenced to death in absentia for separate attacks in Amman -- including the assassination of USAID official Laurence Foley -- had been apprehended in Iraq earlier this year. Now in Jordan, the two will face re-trial in Jordan's State Security Court for their crimes, as stipulated by Jordanian law. ¶2. (U) The State Security Court on April 6 convicted Muammar Ahmad Yusef al-Jaghbir (and five others in absentia, including Abu Musab al-Zarqawi) for his role in Foley's October 2002 assassination (ref). He is accused of helping form the cell that killed Foley, allegedly the first in a series of contemplated attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in Jordan. Jordanian officials also believe Jaghbir facilitated communication between the cell's mastermind (a Libyan already in custody) and Zarqawi. ¶3. (U) The second man, Mustafa Siyyam, received a death sentence in absentia in April 2003 for his role in a February 2002 car bombing that targeted a senior Jordanian intelligence official in Amman. The official escaped unharmed, but the explosion killed two passersby. The trials probably will begin in September, after the Court's summer recess. HALE