Jordan's military prosecutor has charged two terror operatives for plotting to kill an Israeli factory owner in the Jordanian city of Irbid. Loay Shehadah, 37, and Mohammed Odatallah, 36, were charged Wednesday with planning a murder and the illegal possession of two automatic weapons. The indictment sheet said the men were looking to kill Jews living in Jordan. They had located a factory owned by the Israeli businessman, whose name was not revealed, and began monitoring his movements. In January, the two headed to the factory to kill the man but failed as a security patrol passed by the place at the same time. The intelligence services uncovered the plot and arrested the two men.
In June 2008, Jordan's military court sentenced three Hamas operatives to between five and 15 years in jail for conspiring to attack Israeli businessmen, Jordanian intelligence officers and other targets across Jordan. The three - Ayman Naji al-Daraghmeh, Ahmed Abu Rabee and Ahmed Abu Thiyab - were all Jordanians of Palestinian origin. They pleaded innocent to all charges, including photographing the Israeli Embassy, the homes of the Israeli ambassador and his staff, and the offices of Jordanian companies dealing with Israeli firms.
Daraghmeh, who received the longest sentence, claimed after his 2006 arrest that he got orders from an unnamed high-level Hamas leader living in Syria.