A Jordanian military court on Wednesday sentenced eight Jordanian Al Qaeda-linked Islamists to jail terms of between 10 and two years for plotting attacks on US and Jewish targets. Convicted ringleader Ahmad Shbaneh was handed a 10-year jail term, although the prosecutor had demanded the death penalty against him and his co-defendants, three of whom are on the run. Fugitives Ahmad Yassin and Haitham al-Gazzaz were also given a 10-year term, while the other defendants were sentenced to between two and seven-and-a-half years in prison.The court said it opted for lighter sentences to give the suspects a chance to improve themselves, although the charge of conspiracy to carry out attacks carried the death sentence. Defence lawyers said they would appeal the verdicts. The five defendants who appeared in court chanted Islamic slogans when the verdict was read out, an AFP correspondent in the courtroom said. “Allah is our master. They have no masters,” the five suspects held in a metal cage chanted.
“The charges against us are an honour,” they said in unison, while one of them knelt and kissed the ground.
| Before the hearing started, the suspects told reporters, “We are not bloodthirsty but we are determined to safeguard the dignity of Islam”. |
They also condemned US President George W. Bush and his ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair. “Ours is the true religion, not the religion of Bush and Blair,” one of them said. They slammed Bush for having compared between Muslim fundamentalists to fascists.
The suspects had pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial in March on charges of plotting attacks on a police academy southeast of Amman where Iraqi police cadets are being trained by US and international instructors. According to court papers, the suspects also plotted attacks inside Jordan against Americans and Jews. Shbaneh was specifically accused of having enrolled the other suspects into an “illegal organisation” which he is accused of having set up known as “Al-Taefah Al-Mansura” (Victorious Sect).
After the March 2003 US-led war on Iraq, Shbaneh decided “to strike at Americans and Jews and carry out military operations against them inside Jordan,” the charge sheet read. The group was also accused of plotting to send militants to Iraq to train on the use of weapons and explosives, but it did not specify which operations were planned against Jews.