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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Failed suicide bomber sentenced to death |
| 2006-09-21 |
| A JORDANIAN military court has sentenced a failed female suicide bomber and six others to death for planning attacks which killed 60 people in Amman last year. Sajida al-Rishawi, the only defendant in custody, and the others who were tried in absentia were all found guilty of conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts causing death and destruction, and illegal possession of weapons and explosives. The simultaneous bombings of three hotels in the Jordanian capital last November was claimed by al Qaeda's leader in Iraq at that time, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Rishawi, from the western Iraqi town of Ramadi, wore a Muslim headscarf and a blue prison gown in court and showed little reaction to the verdict. "She expected either the death sentence or to be sent back to Iraq," said her lawyer Hussein al-Masri, who said she had not helped him gather information or documents from her family in Iraq to help her defence. He said he would appeal against the verdict. Charges against Zarqawi, who originally was also charged in the case, were officially dropped after the court accepted that he had been killed in Iraq in June. Prosecutors said Rishawi tried to blow herself up with her suicide bomber husband, who struck at the Radisson hotel during a wedding reception on November 9, 2005. Two other hotels - the Hyatt and Days Inn - were targeted in simultaneous attacks. Rishawi made a televised confession a few days after the blasts, appearing in a headscarf and a long black coat as she described her attempts to detonate an explosives-laden belt. But in court she pleaded not guilty to the charges. Mr Masri said earlier this year that Rishawi told him her confessions were extracted under torture, but that he had no proof of this. The lawyer said Rishawi, who told the court she had married her husband Ali Hussein al-Shimeri a day before coming to Jordan, only knew about the bomb plot when her husband forced her to wear the suicide belt hours before the attack. She was arrested shortly afterwards when she tried to hide with the family of her sister's husband, a Jordanian killed in clashes with US forces in Iraq. Zarqawi claimed responsibility for the bombings that killed 60 people and defended them in an internet audiotape, saying the hotels were home to US and Israeli spies. Zarqawi, a Jordanian, had already been sentenced to death in absentia for involvement in plots to destabilise Jordan. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 suicide bomber sentenced to death. it's like bronzy and goldy but made of iron |
| Posted by: pihkalbadger 2006-09-21 17:25 |
#3 From Hamlet.First Clown: What is he that builds stronger than either the mason, the shipwright, or the carpenter? |
| Posted by: Korora 2006-09-21 14:10 |
| #2 Yes |
| Posted by: kelly 2006-09-21 10:34 |
| #1 I'm obliged to wonder whether Rishawi's death sentence is the result of any strong opposition to terrorism or has more to do with the high profile nature of those Palestinian intelligence (oxymoron alert!) officials that got snuffed in the blast. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2006-09-21 07:19 |