A suspected Al Qaeda-linked militant who was captured in Iraq and brought back to his home country Jordan pleaded not guilty on Monday on charges he was involved in the killing of a US diplomat in Amman. Muammar Ahmed Yousef al-Jaghbeer, 34, was already convicted in absentia and sentenced to death for his role in the Oct. 28, 2002 slaying of Laurence Foley. But under Jordanian law, he was allowed a retrial after his capture. Al-Jaghbeer was allegedly part of a cell linked to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the head of Al Qaeda's branch in Iraq, that gunned down Foley, 60, an Amman-based administrator for the US Agency for International Development, and envisaged a string of attacks against Americans and Israelis in Jordan.After al-Jaghbeer, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, made his plea in the State Security Court, presiding judge Col. Fawaz al-Buqour adjourned the hearing until March 21. A military court in April convicted al-Jaghbeer, al-Zarqawi - who is also Jordanian - and four others in absentia for the killing and sentenced them to death. Four others who were in custody at the time were also convicted and two of them were sentenced to death.
Al-Jaghbeer, who was captured by US forces in Iraq and extradited, was accused of facilitating contacts between the alleged cell mastermind, Libyan Salem bin Suweid, and al-Zarqawi. Bin Suweid, who was present in the court in April, was sentenced to death for firing the gun that killed Foley. Jordanian security officials have insisted that Foley's murder was the work of Al Qaeda. The court's verdict last year did not say whether it found a direct link between the Jordan cell and Osama bin Laden's terror group. Military prosecutors did not mention the terror group in the initial indictment. They did say, however, that at least half of the suspects had links with al-Zarqawi, who allegedly provided bin Suweid with weapons and US$62,000 to finance the plot. Al-Jaghbeer is also on a separate trial with al-Zarqawi for the 2003 Jordanian Embassy bombing in Baghdad that killed 18 people.