| Jordan's tearing 'em up... |
The State Security Court (SSC) prosecutor on Tuesday indicted 20 suspects in two cases, including Jordanian fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi, in connection with terrorist attacks in Amman and Aqaba last year.
 The first case involved the Iraqi would-be suicide bomber Sajida Rishawi, who participated in the November 9 bombings of three hotels in the capital, which left 60 people dead and around 90 injured. Rishawi, 35, will be tried soon, while seven other defendants, including Zarqawi, will be tried in absentia, a judicial source told The Jordan Times.
| Zark's been tried and sentenced in absentia so many times he probably doesn't even notice anymore. |
The charge sheet identified the remaining defendants as Othman Ismail Dalimi, Hiam Hassan and her brother Walid Hassan, Nihad Rishawi and Karim Jassim Fahdawi, all Iraqi. The eighth defendant was identified as Mazen Mohammad Shehadeh, a Jordanian.
| He'd be the local liaison, probably a runner for the local controller, who's, of course, unindicted... |
The group was charged with possessing explosives with illicit intent and plotting subversive acts that led to death and destruction. The prosecutor said the group belonged to Al Qaeda and sought, under the instructions of Zarqawi, to launch a terrorist attack against Jordan and kill innocent people. Zarqawi provided Dalimi, Shehadeh, Hiam and Walid with explosive belts and asked them to travel to Jordan, the prosecution said. The four decided on the targets and rented an apartment for Rishawi and the three suicide bombers who later attacked the hotels, the charge sheet said.
| Probably the local controller, rather than the four, was the guy who picked the targets. Unless Rishawi and Co. were regulars in Beautiful Downtown Amman, they probably didn't know where the prime targets were. |
On November 5, Rishawi, her husband, Ali Hassan Shumari, and two other suicide bombers travelled to Jordan and met with the rest of the defendants who provided them with the explosive belts and information about their targets, according to court documents. Rishawi and her husband headed to Radisson SAS Hotel and entered a wedding party where Rishawi's husband blew himself up. Rishawi tried to blow herself up but the belt did not detonate and she left the premises, the charge sheet said. She was arrested in Salt on November 13.
| Never having been to Amman, the Radisson SAS wouldn't pop to my mind as a prime target. Maybe after I saw it, all glittering and new and such... |
The two other suicide bombers, Safa Ali and Ruwad Mohammad, headed separately to Days Inn and Grand Hyatt hotels where they detonated their explosive belts, killing and injuring scores of people. Four days after the November 9 bombings, Rishawi appeared on Jordan Television and confessed that she married her husband in order to be able to enter Jordan to launch the suicide attack.
| It wasn't just for sex, y'see, even though with a face like that she'd never get any legitimately... |
Zarqawi, who has a $25 million bounty on his head by the United States, has been sentenced to death by the SSC in absentia three times over the past two years.
The second case on Tuesday involved 12 defendants, including seven Syrians, four Iraqis and one Saudi, who were indicted on charges of launching a rocket attack in Aqaba that resulted in the death of a Jordanian soldier on August 19. Six of the 12 defendants are in custody. They were identified as Abdul Rahman Abdullah, 52, Mohammad Hassan Sahli, 53, his sons Yasser, 30, Bilal, 24, and Baraa, 24, all Syrian.
| Bilal and Baraa are twins? |
A sixth defendant, Sameh Nobani, 22, is a Saudi citizen residing in Jordan, according to the charge sheet.
| My first guess would be that he's the money man... |
The remaining six defendants at large are Amar Samerai, Abdul Halim Dalimi, Hamid Dalimi and Hussam Dalimi, all Iraqi, and Abdul Ruhman Sahli and his brother Abdullah, both Syrian. They were charged with possessing explosives with illicit intent and plotting subversive acts that led to the death of an individual. Eight of the 12 defendants were charged with plotting activities aimed at undermining Jordan's relations with another country.
Some of the suspects were instructed by an Iraqi named Abu Fahd to launch attacks against the US and Israeli embassies in Amman, as well as against the Israeli port city of Eilat, which is situated on the Red Sea across from Aqaba, according to the charge sheet. Sahli and his brother Abdullah smuggled seven rockets and timing devices in their car while travelling from Iraq to Jordan, the charge sheet said. The defendants fitted the rockets with the timing devices and placed them in a warehouse in Aqaba to be launched the following day against US warships in the port, according to court documents. Four rockets malfunctioned. The remaining three missed their targets, but killed a Jordanian soldier who was guarding a government hospital, the charge sheet said. In an Internet statement, Zarqawi's group claimed responsibility for the rocket attack in Aqaba, but Zarqawi's name was not listed in the 12-page charge sheet. The trial of the Aqaba attack defendants is expected to start in the next few weeks, according to a judicial source. |