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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Jordan jails al-Qaeda cell member |
| 2004-06-16 |
| A Jordanian military court today convicted 15 men – all but one of whom remains at large – for a terror conspiracy targeting American and Israeli interests as well as Western tourists. The court said it found Ahmad Mahmoud Saleh al-Riyati, 34, to be the mastermind of the terror cell linked to al-Qaida and Ansar al-Islam militant groups. Al-Riyati, the only suspect in custody, was jailed for 15 years, but the sentence was immediately cut in half to give him another chance in life, the court said. Eight of the other 14 – 12 of them Jordanians and two Iraqis – were sentenced to 15 years with hard labour. The court formally dropped charges against the remaining six, saying they had died. It did not say how, but military prosecution sources have said they were killed battling American forces in Iraq. The indictment said al-Qaida and Ansar al-Islam had recruited al-Riyati and his cell to conduct terror attacks against US and Israeli interests in Jordan as well as to attack Western tourists and assassinate top Jordanian intelligence officers. Details of the plots were not revealed. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |