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| Middle East |
| Jordan Upholds Death Sentence for US-Born Muslim Activist |
| 2003-01-06 |
| Source: Reuters A Jordanian court Sunday upheld a death sentence by hanging against a U.S.-born Islamist convicted of plotting attacks on American and Israeli targets in Jordan during the 2000 millennium celebrations. G'bye, Raed. It hasn't been fun... The State Security Court squashed a ruling by the cassation court requesting a rehearing of last February's death sentence against California-born Raed Hijazi, 34, on grounds there was insufficient evidence to back up explosives charges against him. "We will not follow the ruling of the cassation court ... and the court decides to penalize the defendant," State Security Chief Judge Colonel Fawaz al-Baqour told the court. "Sorry. We're out of technicalities." Hijazi was found guilty of obtaining explosives and weapons and planning attacks against American and Israeli tourists in the kingdom during 2000 millennium celebrations. The death sentence by hanging against Hijazi was Jordan's first against a Muslim fundamentalist since the September 11 suicide attacks on U.S. cities in 2001. Charges that Hijazi was a member of Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network were dropped by the court last February. That wasn't because there was no evidence, but because the Jordanians didn't want to admit to an al-Qaeda presence... Hijazi was an aid worker helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan for four years in the early 1990s. His name appeared in October 2001 on a U.S. Treasury Department list of 39 groups and people suspected of ties to "terrorist funding." Defense lawyers had accused prosecutors of exploiting the attacks on U.S. cities to prejudice the case against Hijazi. They say Hijazi's trial, held in the glare of the international media, was to publicize Jordan's role as a main ally of Washington in its fight against Muslim "extremists". Or it could be that he's a Bad Guy and he wanted to kill people. Actually, that's what I think it is, now that I think about it... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |