VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAM #7630/01 2780618
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 050618Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4640
INFO RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD 3863
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 2480

UNCLAS AMMAN 007630 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER PHUM ASEC IZ SY JO
SUBJECT: TERRORISM TRIALS UPDATE 
 
REF: A. AMMAN 7277 
     ¶B. AMMAN 4685 
     ¶C. AMMAN 2118 
     ¶D. AMMAN 6824 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Jordan's State Security Court (SSC) handed 
down sentences in six terrorism-related cases and began 
proceedings against Nabil Ahmad Issa Jaaoura, a Jordanian who 
allegedly killed a British tourist at Amman's Roman 
Amphitheater in early September, and Ziyad Khalaf Karbouli, 
an Iraqi charged with murdering a Jordanian citizen in Iraq 
in September 2005.  The SSC continued proceedings against 
seven alleged al-Qaida militants in the Queen Alia airport 
plot, and revealed that it would announce verdicts for the 
Azmi Jaiousi prison-break plot on November 1. END SUMMARY. 
RISHAWI SENTENCED 
¶2. (SBU) The SSC on September 21 sentenced seven to hang, 
including would-be suicide bomber Sajidah al-Rishawi, for the 
November 2005 Amman Hotel bombings (ref A).  The other six 
defendants -- Othman Ismail Dalimi; Hiam Hassan; Walid 
Hassan; Nihad Rishawi; Karim Jassim Fahdawi; and Mazen 
Mohammad Shehadeh -- were tried in absentia, and are believed 
to be in Iraq.  The Court of Cassation will review the 
sentence.  If the sentence is upheld, the King must sign a 
death warrant before the execution can take place. 
 
KHALAYLEH SENTENCED 
 
¶3. (SBU) On September 27 the SSC sentenced Omar Jamil Nazzal 
al-Khalayleh (a cousin of the late terrorist Abu Mus'ab 
al-Zarqawi), Wissam Dimawi, and Riyad Udwan to six months in 
prison for "subjecting the Kingdom to hostile acts."  Hassan 
Salem Ajemi was handed a three-year prison term for 
"undermining Jordan's relations with another country."  A 
fifth defendant, Raed Nawaysheh, who was tried in absentia, 
was given a five-year sentence for subjecting the Kingdom to 
hostile activities.  The defendants, who were arrested in 
May, plotted to recruit fighters in Syria and then move into 
Iraq to fight against US and Iraqi forces, according to the 
GOJ.  The defendants reportedly shouted, "God is great" upon 
hearing their verdicts (ref B.) 
BREIZAT CELL ) JIPTC PLOTTERS SENTENCED 
¶4. (SBU) On September 13, the SSC sentenced Ma'adh Breizat, 
Ibrahim Jahawha, and Faisal Rweidan to 20 years of hard labor 
for plotting attacks against Americans in Jordan.  The three 
were initially sentenced to death; however the court amended 
the sentence to "give the defendants a second chance in 
life."  Obada Hiyari received a ten-year sentence for 
plotting subversive acts.  Upon hearing the verdict, the four 
men shouted, "God is great" and "God won't ignore tyrants, 
you criminals and enemies of Allah."  According to the charge 
sheet, the defendants decided in late 2004 to attack 
Americans who were training Iraqi police officers.  The 
defendants followed American instructors from the Jordan 
International Police Training Center to a house near the 
American Embassy in Amman in August 2005.  The defendants 
repeated their surveillance activities several times and were 
arrested by authorities on August 31, 2005 according to court 
documents (ref C). 
SENTENCES IN KHATTAB BRIGADE CASE 
 
¶5. (SBU) On September 13, the SSC handed down prison 
sentences ranging between 10 and 15 years hard labor to six 
men accused of having plotted to attack American citizens, 
nightclubs, liquor shops, and hotels in Amman and Aqaba. 
According to the GOJ, the defendants sought to spray cyanide 
on the doorknobs of nightclubs to poison customers, but could 
not buy the chemical without a license.  They later switched 
plans to conduct their attacks using machine-guns, according 
to the indictment.  The group's plot was foiled when four 
members of the group, Hamdi Ahmad Abdallah Ali, Lu'ay Hisham 
Abd-al-Qadir al-Sharif, Muhammad Hasan Uqlah al-Umri, and 
Muhammad Awdah Ali, were arrested in mid-September 2005.  Two 
of the defendants, Usama Amin al-Shihabi and Haytham 
Abd-al-Karim al-Sa'di, were tried in absentia and are 
believed to be in Lebanon.  The cell's members received 
weapons training in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern 
Lebanon from the two fugitives, according to court papers 
(ref C). 
TAXI DRIVER SENTENCED FOR WEAPONS SMUGGLING 
¶6. (SBU) On July 19, the SSC sentenced Nizar Bahjat Al Rifai, 
a Jordanian taxi driver who worked the Amman-Damascus-Beirut 
route, to seven-and-a-half years in prison for smuggling arms 
from Lebanon to Jordan.  The defendant was first handed a 
15-year prison term for bringing six rifles and ammunition 
into the country in January, but the court immediately 
reduced the sentence "because the defendant is young and to 
give him a second chance in life."  The defendant bought the 
weapons from a shop in Lebanon on January 15 and hid them 
over his car's gasoline tank, court papers said.  While 
reentering Jordan via Syria, border control guards caught the 
defendant smuggling the rifles. 
MAN SENTENCED FOR E-MAIL THREATS 
¶7. (SBU) On July 13, the SSC sentenced a Syrian man to 
two-and-a-half-years in prison for sending e-mails in which 
he threatened terrorist acts in Jordan.  Yousef Daghestani 
was first handed a five-year prison term by the SSC, but his 
sentence was immediately reduced "to give him a second chance 
in life because the defendant is young and lives away from 
home."  Under the user name "911" and with the password 
"blood," the defendant posted threatening text in the Jordan 
Information Center's (JIC) online political forum following 
the November 9, 2005, triple bombings in Amman.  The text of 
the e-mail read: "If you think that you have ended us then 
you are mistaken.  Watch out for new and mass explosions at a 
strategic place, which has many infidels... I demand JD1 
million in ransom and the release of my sister Sajida 
(referring to would-be suicide bomber Sajida Rishawi).  Death 
has approached you infidels," according to court documents. 
In Daghestani's three-page written testimony, he claimed that 
Jordanian authorities subjected him to torture shortly after 
his arrest in late November 2005 (ref C). 
JAAOURA TRIAL BEGINS 
¶8. (SBU) The trial of Nabil Ahmad Issa Jaaoura, the Jordanian 
man who killed a British tourist and injured five others in a 
shooting at Amman's Roman Amphitheater in early September 
(ref D) began October 4.  The five wounded tourists included 
two Britons, a Dutch national, a New Zealander and an 
Australian.  The state prosecutor officially charged Jaaoura 
with carrying out terrorist attacks, causing the death of a 
person, and possessing an unlicensed gun, according to media. 
 Officials said Jaaoura confessed to the shootings, and that 
he claimed he sought revenge for the killing of his two 
brothers in an Israeli raid on Lebanon in 1982.  Jaaoura 
claimed that the "Israeli aggression against Lebanon in 
August" pushed him to carry out his plans, court documents 
said.  Shortly after his arrest, government officials 
announced that Jaaoura "worked alone and had no connection to 
any domestic or foreign organizations." 
KARBOULI CASE OPENS 
¶9. (SBU) On September 20, Ziyad Khalaf Karbouli pled not 
guilty to charges of murdering a Jordanian citizen in Iraq in 
September 2005.  Karbouli, who appeared on Jordan state 
television shortly after his arrest in May, confessed to 
killing Jordanian truck driver Khalid Dasouqi in September 
last year and abducting two Moroccan diplomats while on their 
way from Amman to Baghdad.  During the trial, Karbouli 
shouted that "Dasouqi was a tyrant and an apostate," and 
"there are 4,000 Jordanian drivers working for the Americans 
in Iraq and there will be a Karbouli out there every day to 
kill them."  He added that Arab leaders race to please and 
serve "Israelis and Americans, and if they kill us we will be 
martyrs but they will burn in hell."  He finished his tirade 
by attacking Pope Benedict XVI for his recent remarks. 
Karbouli and 13 other suspects, who remain at large, are 
charged with plotting subversive acts that led to the death 
of an individual, possessing explosives with illicit intent, 
and belonging to an illegal organization.  Karbouli's 
court-appointed lawyer Adel Tarawneh told the court on 
September 20 that Iraqis had the right to defend their 
country because foreign forces occupy it. 
AIRPORT ATTACK CASE CONTINUES 
¶10. (SBU) Proceedings against seven alleged al-Qaida 
militants charged with plotting to carry out suicide attacks 
against Amman's Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) and 
resort hotels at the Dead Sea continued throughout the 
summer.  Four defendants -- a Libyan and three Iraqis -- have 
been in police custody since late February.  The other three 
defendants -- two Iraqis and one Saudi -- are at large and 
are being tried in absentia.  If convicted, all face the 
death penalty.  On September 20, a police officer testifying 
in the case told the court he searched the Amman apartment of 
one of the Iraqi defendants, Abdul Karim Jamili, and found 
3.6 kilograms of PE-4A heavy explosives concealed inside a 
children's construction game.  According to the charge sheet, 
some of the suspects rented apartments in Zarqa (north of 
Amman) and Amman's Jabal Hussein neighborhood from which to 
launch attacks against hotels at the Dead Sea and Aqaba in 
July 2005, "because the hotels were frequented by Americans 
and Israelis."  The group claims that the al-Qaida network in 
Iraq wanted to claim responsibility for the foiled attack 
(ref B.) 
JAIOUSI PRISON BREAK: SSC TO ANNOUNCE VERDICT NOVEMBER 1 
¶11. (SBU) The SSC announced that it will issue a verdict 
November 1 in the case of eight men standing trial for aiding 
Azmi Jaiousi in his failed bid to escape from prison.  On 
April 25, the SSC charged Jaiousi, the mastermind behind an 
al-Qaida plan to launch chemical attacks in the Kingdom, and 
eight others with plotting a prison breakout.  According to 
the prosecutor, Jaiousi and Mohammad Kutkut, both inmates at 
Swaqa prison, plotted the breakout shortly before Kutkut's 
release in November 2005.  On his release, Kutkut contacted 
several militants to plan Jaiousi's escape, and later placed 
machineguns and ammunition in a getaway vehicle before 
heading to the prison in late January 2006, according to the 
prosecutor (ref B.) 
Hale