Two militants were executed by hanging Saturday for the killing in Amman of a U.S. diplomat, police said. Laurence Foley, a 60-year-old administrator of U.S. aid programs in Jordan, was gunned down outside his Amman home on Oct. 28, 2002. Jordanian authorities blame Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for Foley's death.
The two executed militants are Salem bin Suweid, a Libyan, and Yasser Freihat, a Jordanian. They were convicted of belonging to a cell headed by the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi. The two appealed their convictions, but the appeals court upheld their death sentences in November. A police statement said bin Suweid and Freihat were executed before dawn at Swaqa Jail, 60 miles south of the Jordanian capital.
In July 2004, a Jordanian military court found 10 people, including al-Zarqawi, guilty of a terror conspiracy that led to the killing of Foley. Six were sentenced to death, including al-Zarqawi and four other Jordanians believed to be in Iraq. When we grab ol' Zarq, I'm not averse to wringing him dry and letting the Jordanians hang him, as long as he never leaves US custody until his worthless neck is actually in the noose. | One of the 10, Moamar Ahmad al-Jaghbeer, was later captured by U.S. forces in Iraq and extradited to Jordan, where he is being retried for Foley's murder and another terror case. An 11th man was acquitted for lack of evidence.Jordan has sentenced scores of militants to death in recent years. Saturday's executions were the first to involve militants believed linked to al-Qaida. |