VZCZCXYZ0023
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAM #1801/01 1161421
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 261421Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8269

UNCLAS AMMAN 001801 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PTER PHUM ASEC IZ SY JO
SUBJECT: STATE SECURITY COURT UPDATE 
 
REF: A. REF AMMAN 222 
     ¶B. 06 AMMAN 4685 
     ¶C. 06 AMMAN 2145 
     ¶D. 04 AMMAN 10304 
     ¶E. 06 AMMAN 7630 
     ¶F. AMMAN 1056 
     ¶G. AMMAN 1038 
     ¶H. TD 314/81273-06 
     ¶I. AMMAN 98 
 
¶1. SUMMARY:  Jordan's State Security Court (SSC) sentenced 
Ziad al-Karbouli and three others to death and handed down 
prison sentences in three other terrorism-related cases, 
while Jordan's Court of Cassation upheld the SSC's death 
penalty verdict for would-be suicide bomber Sajida Rishawi. 
Meanwhile, three defendants pled not guilty to plotting to 
assassinate President Bush during his November 2006 visit, 
the "Taxi-plot" defendants claim their confessions were 
extracted under duress, and three defendants denied any links 
to Hamas, requesting that senior Hamas leaders testify on 
their behalf.  SSC prosecutors charged a group of eighteen 
men with recruiting fighters to join insurgents in Iraq, five 
others with recruiting suicide bombers to attack U.S.-led 
forces in Iraq, and a group of three men with plotting to 
bomb a warehouse  that stored imports from Israel.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
KARBOULI, 3 OTHERS, SENTENCED TO DEATH 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. In mid-March, the SSC (a special tribunal for terrorism 
and other cases that has both civilian and military judges 
and attorneys) sentenced former Iraqi customs employee Ziad 
Khalaf Raja al-Karbouli to death by hanging for the murder of 
Khaled Dasouqi, a Jordanian truck-driver who worked the 
Amman-Baghdad highway (ref A).  Prosecutors also charged 
Karbouli and 13 other defendants, who were tried and 
sentenced in absentia, with attempting to attack oil tankers 
on the Jordanian-Iraqi border with rockets and explosives, 
and plotting to loot trucks carrying goods from Jordan to 
Iraq.  The court sentenced, in absentia, Ashar Younis al 
Ramlawi, Iyad Khalaf Karbouli, and Ashar Nabhan al Assafi to 
death, while Thafer Aliwi, and Daker Aliwi received life 
sentences.  Eight other defendants, Qaed al-Kubeisi, Yasser 
al-Kubeisi, Majeed al-Kubeisi, Mahmoud al-Kubeisi, Mohannad 
al-Kubeisi, Ashar al-Kubeisi, Mohammad al-Kubeisi, and 
Mahmoud Amra received fifteen year prison sentences. 
 
AIRPORT ATTACK PLOTTERS SENTENCED 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶3. The SSC on April 2 handed down sentences for six men who 
plotted Al-Qaeda linked terrorist attacks at Queen Alia 
International Airport and hotels in Aqaba and the Dead Sea 
(ref B).  Five defendants; Saad Nueimi, Mohammad Saeed Darsi, 
Yousef Abed Obeidi, Saad Fawzi Obeidi, and Turki Nasser were 
sentenced to life imprisonment; however, the Obeidis and 
Nasser were tried in absentia and are still at large.  Mushen 
Mathloum was also sentenced to life imprisonment, but the 
tribunal immediately commuted the sentence to 15 years "to 
give him a second chance in life."  A seventh defendant, 
Abdul Karim Ikhdeir Jmeily, was acquitted for lack of 
evidence.  As the court read out the verdicts, the defendants 
shouted "God is great" and "We're not afraid of your judgment 
- we won't surrender.  Our holy battle will continue until 
martyrdom."  The group, arrested in February of 2006, 
allegedly told authorities that Al Qaeda in Iraq wanted to 
claim responsibility for the foiled attack. 
 
THREE SENTENCED FOR RECRUITING FIGHTERS FOR IRAQ INSURGENCY 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶4. On April 10 the SSC sentenced three men for recruiting 
others to join Iraqi insurgents (ref A).  Hamzeh Nawaisheh 
received a prison term of three years and four months, while 
two other men who were tried in absentia, Mohammad Hajjaj, 
and Abdullah Fasfous, were handed five year sentences. 
Nawaisheh told the court "I am not a criminal and Jihad is 
not a crime" upon sentencing.  According to the charge sheet 
both Hajjaj and Fasfous are now in Iraq. 
 
THREE DEFENDANTS RETRIED / SENTENCED FOR PLOTTING ATTACKS 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶5. In late January the SSC re-convicted three men in a 
retrial for possessing explosives that prosecutors alleged 
were to be used for attacks against the U.S. Embassy in 
Jordan.  The three men, Salah Awad al-Ali, Amer Mohammed 
al-Sraj, and Mohammed Ahmad al-Chalabi - also known as Abu 
Sayyaf - who is also currently appealing a death sentence he 
received in March 2006 for his role in the 2002 Ma'an 
uprising (ref C) - were originally convicted for illegal 
possession of explosives in December 2004 (ref D).  However, 
the Court of Cassation ordered a retrial as there were several 
legal flaws in the case.  In the January 2007 
retrial, al-Ali's sentenced was reduced from 12 years to 7 
and one half years as the court determined he had a lesser 
role in the crime.  Chalabi and Sraj received the same 
sentences as in 2004, 15 years and 10 years imprisonment 
respectively. 
 
CASSATION COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCE FOR RISHAWI 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶6. On January 25 the Court of Cassation - Jordan's highest 
court - upheld the death sentence passed against would-be 
November 2005 Amman hotel suicide bomber Sajida Rishawi.  The 
Court of Cassation also upheld death sentences for six others 
who were tried for the same charges in absentia (ref E).  The 
King must sign a death warrant before the execution can take 
place.  Rishawi, if executed, will be the first woman in 
Jordan to receive the death penalty for a terrorist act. 
 
POTUS ASSASSINATION PLOTTERS PLEAD NOT GUILTY 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. On March 14 three Jordanians pled not guilty to charges of 
plotting to assassinate President Bush, conspiracy to carry 
out terrorist acts with flammable substances, and possessing 
illegal weapons and explosive substances (refs F, G).  The 
three; Nidal Momani, 29, Tharawt Daraz, 24, and Sattam 
Zawahra, 28, were arrested in October 2006 after they 
unsuccessfully attempted to burn down a liquor store and a 
brewery in Zarqa.  The defendants later confessed to 
discussing a suicide attack against President Bush's convoy 
and plotting to attack U.S. and Danish diplomatic facilities 
in Amman (note: there is no Danish diplomatic facility in 
Amman).  The defendant's lawyer responded that his clients 
"are not members of any terrorist group" and that "they hail 
from very poor families and did not have any financial 
possibility to bomb the U.S. and Danish embassies." 
 
"TAXI PLOTTERS" CLAIM TORTURE" 
----------------------------- 
 
¶8. In early March, Mohammad Hussein Shehaddeh and Mohammad 
Samih Hotari who were arrested in 2006 for plotting to attack 
an American residing in Amman (refs A, H), withdrew their 
confessions claiming that they had been made under torture 
and duress.  Defense witnesses, three relatives and two 
inmates testified that they observed torture marks on 
defendant's bodies.  According to the charge sheet, the 
defendants, who began monitoring the activities of an 
American who used Hotari's taxi service, code named their 
plan "operation Yoya" but were arrested before they could 
carry out the plot.  SSC prosecutors and the defendant's 
lawyer made closing statements in late April and are awaiting 
a verdict in the case. 
 
DEFENDANTS DENY HAMAS LINK, REQUEST HAMAS LEADERS TESTIFY 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶9. In mid-February three defendants accused of plotting 
terrorist attacks in Jordan on behalf of Hamas (ref A), asked 
the SSC to summon Hamas leaders Khaled Mishaal and Moayyad 
Hamdan, as well as journalists and the directors of several 
Jordanian news services, to testify in their trial.  In 
mid-March SSC prosecutors asked the court to deny the request 
on grounds that the defense was merely trying to politicize 
the case.  The three men, Ayman Naji Hamdallah, 34, Ahmad 
Khalil Abu Rabieh, 27, and Ahmad Abu Diab, 29, who pled not 
guilty to charges of conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts 
and illegal possession of explosives and weapons in December 
2006, claim they were forced to admit to plotting attacks and 
being part of Hamas on national television in May 2006. 
 
18 CHARGED WITH RECRUITING FIGHTERS 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶10. On February 12 the SSC charged 18 men, six of whom remain 
at large, with recruiting fighters to conduct suicide attacks 
and fight against Americans in Iraq.  One of the defendants, 
Awni Ramadan Mustafa al-Manisi was arrested, and one member 
of the group, Suleiman Ghayyad al-Anadi, was killed during a 
raid on a house in Irbid on January 9 (ref I).  The 
defendants, seeking to join Al Qaeda in Iraq, undertook 
military training in Lebanon and Syria.  Two of the 
defendants were arrested while illegally crossing the 
Syrian-Jordanian border.  The defendants who will remain in 
custody pending trial are: Muhannad al-Shalabi, Anas Yusuf, 
Fadi Salamah, Faraj Sharif, Jamal Khalil, Hamzah al-Saqr, 
Muhammad Dabbus, Hamzah al-Bistawi, Jihad al-Saqr, Diya 
al-Ajai, Barakat al-Bawati, and Awni Ramadan Musatfa 
al-Manisi.  The defendants who remain at large are Husayn 
Fawzi, Ruhayl Qudaysat, Baha Ahmad Musa al-Ajawi, Ahmad Ali 
Abdallah Qarmul, Jamal al-Dughaydi, and Shakir Yusuf hassan 
al-Absi. 
FIVE CHARGED WITH RECRUTING SUICIDE BOMBERS 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶11. Nidal Salem, 34, and Zuhair Hamdan, 34, who pled not 
guilty to charges at the opening of their trial on April 11, 
retracted their confessions on April 25, claiming that a GID 
officer used torture to extract the confessions.  The two are 
charged with recruiting suicide bombers to attack U.S.-led 
forces in Iraq.  Three other defendants, Mohammad Hassan, 
Iyad Mohammad, and Bilal Abdul Ruhman face the same charges 
and are being tried in absentia.  Salem and Hamdan traveled 
to Syria in November 2006 to make contact with recruiters 
there before returning to Jordan where they were apprehended, 
according to the charge sheet. 
 
THREE CHARGED WITH PLOTTING SUBVERSIVE ATTACKS 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶12. SSC prosecutors charged three men with plotting terrorist 
attacks and transporting and manufacturing inflammable 
materials in mid-April.  The defendants, Adnan Smadi, Adel 
Smadi, and Hamdi Fassooli were arrested in March as they 
attempted to attack a factory that imports Israeli minced 
turkey meat.  Adel Smadi used juice bottles and cans of 
pesticide to manufacture homemade bombs, according to the 
charge sheet. 
HALE