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Riyati too nutty to stand trial?
The only defendant present for trial at Jordan's State Security Court in an alleged 15-member terror cell affiliated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network could turn out to be too crazy to stand trial. Ahmad Riyati, captured in March by U.S. forces in northern Iraq and handed over to the Jordanian authorities, was referred to a government mental institute for a two-week evaluation at the request of his lawyer, who said his client had already been committed twice. Riyati, along with 12 other Jordanian and two Iraqi suspects, was charged with plotting attacks against U.S., Israeli and foreign interests and tourists, as well as against Jordanian security personnel. If the government-appointed psychiatrists find he is not fit to stand trial, all charges against him would be dropped and the remaining 14 suspects who are all still at large would all be tried in absentia. Independent legal sources say the credibility of the entire trial is now at stake, adding the whole affair appears concocted to appease the U.S. and demonstrate Jordan's loyalty to President Bush's global war on terrorism.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-10-08 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=19638 |