JORDAN'S STATE SECURITY COURT MOVES ON TERRORISM

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 002118 SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PTER PHUM ASEC IZ SY JO SUBJECT: JORDAN'S STATE SECURITY COURT MOVES ON TERRORISM CASES REF: A. 05 AMMAN 8828 ¶B. 05 AMMAN 6694 ¶C. TD 314/47933-05 ¶D. AMMAN 1176 ¶E. 05 AMMAN 8717 ¶F. 05 AMMAN 9515 ¶G. 05 AMMAN 9392 ¶H. AMMAN 1827 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Jordan's State Security Court (SSC) indicted 20 defendants for terrorist activities in connection with attacks in Amman and Aqaba last year, and indicted members of the "Al-Mansurah" cell for conspiring to carry out terrorist acts. The SSC reached verdicts in six terrorism-related cases, including the Jayousi chemical attack plot of April, 2004. Proceedings continued in cases against two groups charged with plotting attacks against Americans. The SSC also heard appeals from defendants in the Millennium Plot case, and sentenced a man who posted terrorist threats on an internet chat room. The assassins of USAID officer Lawrence Foley were executed by government authorities in mid-March. END SUMMARY. HOTEL BOMBERS INDICTED ¶2. (U) On March 14, the SSC indicted eight defendants, including Iraqi would-be suicide bomber Sajida Rishawi, 35, for the November 2005 hotel bombings in Amman (ref A). Rishawi, who was arrested several days after the bombings, will be tried soon, while the seven other defendants - Othman Ismail Dalimi, Hiam Hassan, Walid Hassan, Nihad Rishawi, Karim Jassim Fahdawi, Mazen Mohammad Shehadeh and Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi - will be tried in absentia for possessing explosives with illicit intent and plotting subversive acts that led to death and destruction. AQABA ATTACKERS INDICTED ¶3. (U) Also on March 14, the SSC indicted 12 defendants, including seven Syrians, four Iraqis and one Saudi, for the August 2005 rocket attack in Aqaba (ref B). Six of the 12 defendants are in custody. They were identified as: Abdul Rahman Abdullah, 52; Mohammad Hassan Sahli, 53; his sons Yasser, 30; Bilal, 24; and Baraa, 24 - all Syrian. A sixth defendant, Sameh Nobani, 22, is a Saudi citizen residing in Jordan, according to the charge sheet. The other six defendants - who remain at large - were identified as Amar Samerai, Abdul Halim Dalimi, Hamid Dalimi and Hussam Dalimi, (all Iraqi),and Abdul Ruhman Sahli and his brother Abdullah (both Syrian). The defendants were charged with possessing explosives with illicit intent, and plotting subversive acts that led to the death of an individual. AL-MANSURAH CELL INDICTMENTS ¶4. (SBU) In mid-March the SSC indicted eight members of the Al-Mansurah cell for conspiring to carry out terrorist acts, membership in an illegal group, and carrying out acts not sanctioned by the government. Five of the defendants - Ahmad Tahir Mahmud Shabanah, 37; Hassan Ahmad Muhammad Mansi, 41; Abd-al-Hakim Mahmud Abd-al-Karim Ali Mu'alla, 39; Sami Mahmud Muhammad al-Aridi, 33; and Sakhar Mustafa Muhammad al-Fawa'ir - are in custody. Haitham Hammad Mahmud al Qazzaz, Ahmad Yusuf Ahmad Yasin, and Nasri Izz al Din Muhammad Fayyad al Tahaynah, the other three defendants, remain at large. Shabanah and other members of the group allegedly distributed CDs containing letters of Abu-Mus'ab al-Zarqawi and photos of anti-Coalition operations in Iraq to mosques in east Amman. Although the defendants were arrested in August 2005, the press only recently reported this case. COMMENT: Press reports of terrorism-related arrests are often delayed in Jordan. The GOJ shared information on this particular case with the USG after the arrests in August (ref C). END COMMENT. VERDICTS IN THE CHEMICAL PLOT ¶5. (U) The SSC sentenced nine men on February 14 to death by hanging, including Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, for the 2004 plot to carry out a chemical/vehicle borne explosive attack against the U.S. Embassy and Jordanian government targets in Amman. The plot,s mastermind, Azmi al-Jayousi, and four co-defendants were present for the sentencing; four others were sentenced in absentia (ref D.) HORANI CELL VERDICTS ¶6. (U) On March 14, the SSC sentenced seven men to various prison terms after convicting them of plotting activities aimed at undermining Jordan's relations with another country. The SSC initially sentenced the cell,s leader, Zeid Saleh al-Horani, 27, and a man identified in the media only as Khalid K., 33, to five-year prison terms, but then reduced the sentence to four years each to "give them a second chance in life." Four other defendants, whose full surnames the court also witheld - Yeldar W., 25, Hassan S., 25, Murad M., 25, and Abdul Rahman Y., 23 - were also sentenced to five-year prison terms, which were then commuted to three years. The last defendant in the case, Ashraf M., 25, received a 20-month prison term for the same charges. In previous court sessions, the defendants claimed that they were subjected to torture and duress by security forces, and that their interrogation and arrest procedures were thus illegal. Defense attorney Hamad Emoush said that he will appeal the verdicts. Arrested in March and May 2005, the defendants reportedly recruited anti-Coalition fighters in Jordan and sent them to Syria, where an individual identified as Abu Janna provided them with military training, according to the prosecution charge sheet (ref E.) QTEISHAT CELL VERDICTS ¶7. (U) The SSC sentenced four men on March 12 to 10 years in prison each for plotting attacks against hotels, tourist sites, and Jordanian security officers in 2005. The SSC originally sentenced the four - Osama Abu Hazeem, Hatem Ensour, Mohammad Arabiat and Yazan Haliq - to death, but immediately commuted the sentence to 10 years imprisonment "to give them a second chance in life." The cell's mastermind, Jordanian fugitive Mohammad Rateb Qteishat who is believed to be in Iraq, was tried in absentia and received a life sentence. The court also convicted the defendants, who shouted "God is our protector and America is yours" during the sentencing, of conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks and possessing illegal explosives with illicit intent. Defense attorney Hikmat Rawashdeh claimed the defendants confessed under torture and were denied legal representation during their interrogation. He will appeal the verdicts. Arrested in February 2005, the group planned to target three luxury hotels frequented by tourists, General Intelligence Directorate (GID) officers, and tourist sites (refs E and F.) AL-MRAYAT CELL VERDICTS ¶8. (U) On January 16, the SSC sentenced Abdullah al-Mrayat, 28, to four years of hard labor for recruiting fighters to join the insurgency in Iraq. Mrayat,s three co-defendants, Moaz al-Zohbi, Saleh al-Maghari, and Khaled al-Manhur, were acquitted for lack of proof. The four men were indicted in September for planning to join insurgents in Iraq and recruiting fighters to attack Coalition forces, but pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial in October. According to the prosecutor, Mrayat traveled to Syria in May 2005, intending to slip into Iraq to join the insurgency, but failed to make it across the border (ref E.) BORDER INFILTRATORS SENTENCED ¶9. (U) On March 8, the SSC handed down sentences, ranging from 20 months to 15 years hard labor, to 11 defendants for infiltrating the border with Syria to join insurgents fighting against coalition forces in Iraq. The defendants were arrested in July 2005 after they returned to Jordan from Syria, having failed to enter Iraq. Five members of this cell remain at large (ref F.) VERDICTS AGAINST MUSA RAMADAN AND MAHMUD SA'DAH ¶10. (U) In late January the SSC sentenced Musa Ramadan, 23, and Mundir Mahmud Sa'dah, 24, to four-year prison terms for plotting attacks against Americans and liquor stores. Ramadan, arrested in the Syrian city of Homs and extradited to Jordan in July 2004, allegedly traveled to Syria to join fighters headed for Iraq (ref E.) BREIZAT CELL - JIPTC PLOT CASE CONTINUES ¶11. (SBU) The SSC indicted four suspects on March 6 for conspiracy with intent to carry out terrorist attacks in Jordan. In addition, the defendants were charged with the acquisition of automatic and unlicensed weaponry. Prosecutors called for the maximum penalty of 15 years. The suspects - Ma,adh Breizat, Ibrahim Jahawha, Faisal Rweidan and Obada Hiyari - allegedly followed American instructors at the Jordan International Police Training Center (JIPTC) to a house near the U.S. Embassy in Amman in August 2005, and inspected a potential ambush site on the road used by U.S. and other trainers to travel to and from JIPTC. The suspects, under arrest since September 2005, claimed that their testimonies were derived under duress (refs F and G.) KHATTAB BRIGADE - CYANIDE CASE CONTINUES ¶12. (U) On March 20, four men standing trial for plotting to use cyanide to kill bar owners and patrons, and to attack Americans, retracted their confessions, claiming they were extracted under duress. The defendants' lawyer Hikmat Rawashdeh argued during his closing remarks that, "Most Jordanians wish to fight Americans and Israelis and I am one of them. Should I be punished for this intention? If this is the case then the authorities should punish the entire Jordanian population." The four defendants - Hamdi Ahmad Abdallah Ali, 23; Lu'ay Hisham abd-al Qadi al Sharif, 25; Muhammad Hasan Uqlah al Umri, 24; and Muhammad Awdah al Ali - were arrested in mid-September 2005. Two other defendants, Usama Amin al Shihabi and Haytham Abd al Karim are being tried in absentia on the same charges (ref F.) MILLENNIUM PLOT VERDICTS CHALLENGED ¶13. (U) On January 16, the SSC upheld sentences against four Millennium plotters and acquitted two others. Denying their fourth appeal, the SSC confirmed death sentences against Khodr Abu Hoshar and Osama Samar, who were first indicted in September 2000 for plotting poison gas attacks against American and Israeli tourists during Jordan,s millennium celebration in 1999. The SSC also upheld life sentences against Khaled Mughamess and Saeed Hijazi. Ismail Khatib and Raed Bdeir, who were initially sentenced to 10 years in prison, were acquitted. FOLEY ASSASSINS EXECUTED ¶14. (U) Jordanian authorities executed Libyan national Yasser Saad bin Suway, 43, and Yasser Fateh Furayhat, 31, on March 11 for the October 2002 assassination of USAID officer Lawrence Foley (ref H). Of the eleven men charged for Foley,s murder, Suwayd and Furayhat are the only two that have been executed. One was acquitted, two others are serving prison sentences, and six others, including Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, were sentenced to death in absentia. Muammar Jaghbir, one of the six originally sentenced to death in absentia, is currently being retried (ref F.) E-THREATS PROSECUTED ¶15. (U) On March 6, the SSC continued proceedings in the case of Yousef Daghastani, a Syrian accused of threatening to carry out terror attacks following the November 2005, hotel bombings in Amman. In late November 2005, Daghastani threatened more bloodshed and a resumption of terrorist attacks on a popular internet forum from an internet caf in Zarqa. He also demanded a 1.41 million Jordanian dinar ransom, and the release of the failed female suicide bomber, Sajida al Rishawi. According to the prosecution charge sheet, Daghastani,s user name was "911" and his password "blood." Daghastani is not the first Jordanian prosecuted for threatening terror via the internet. In May 2005, the SSC sentenced Murad Khaled al Assidah, also from Zarqa, to two and a half years for e-mailing bomb threats to GID officers. HALE