A Jordanian military court convicted three Iraqis Tuesday of smuggling rockets and hand grenades into the kingdom in connection with a plot to attack U.S. and Israeli targets. Separately, the retrial of 10 militants convicted in another foiled terror plot resumed. The three Iraqis were charged with crimes including importing and possessing handguns, automatic rifles, hand grenades and rockets. However, the court found insufficient evidence to convict them on a charge of "conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks" in Jordan — an offense punishable by death.Only two of the three men are in police custody: Ahmed Mohammed Ali Ayed, 26, and Lawrence Hamid Rashid Muhanna, 28. Their 15-year sentences were immediately commuted to 7 1/2 years with hard labor. They said they would appeal. The third, Muawiya Muhanna, was sentenced to 15 years in absentia.
The men were arrested Oct. 12, 2003, after police stopped their vehicle — carrying concealed weapons — at a roadblock on a highway just west of Amman. Authorities charged Lawrence Muhanna — the fugitive's brother — as the chief conspirator and the one who purchased the weapons from Iraq. The indictment alleged he had contacted a Jordanian man identified as Abu-Ali who agreed to the plan of carrying out "military operations against Israeli and American interests on Jordanian land." The indictment did not say what the Iraqis intended to target. The charge sheet said Muawiya Muhanna dispatched the weapons to Amman from the southern desert city of Maan after smuggling them into the country by truck.