 Jordan began and then quickly adjourned the trial of a failed female suicide bomber yesterday, who has already confessed she tried to blow herself up as part of attacks on Amman hotels last year that killed 60 people. Chief Judge Fawaz Al-Baqour adjourned the trial after 35-year-old Sajida Al-Rishawi told the court she had no lawyer to defend her against charges of conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts, causing death and destruction, and the illegal possession of explosives.
| She's just a poor widow lady, y'see... |
Prosecutors say Rishawi tried to blow herself up during the attacks alongside her suicide bomber husband, who killed himself and others in their coordinated attack on the Radisson hotel during a wedding reception on Nov. 9, 2005. “I have no one... I am alone with Allah (God) protecting me,” Rishawi told the judge in her first public appearance since a television confession a few days after the blasts where she appeared in a head scarf and a long black coat describing her attempts to detonate an explosives-laden belt.
"Woe is me! I'm all alone! Who will feed my poor kiddies?"
"Waydaminnit! You ain't got no kiddies!"
"Well, if I did, who would feed 'em?" |
Standing in the dock, Rishawi was dressed in a long blue prison gown with her head covered in a brown scarf and talked without emotion during the brief session. The three-man military tribunal held in the top security Jweida prison, after Al-Qaeda threats to release Rishawi, then instructed the countryÂ’s bar association to appoint lawyers to defend her before setting a new trial date.
"Awright. Who's representing the Widow al-Shimeri, here?"
"Ummm... Yer honor, my won-lost record's been takin' a beating lately. How about Mahmoud? He can represent her!"
"No, I can't! I gotta wash my hair that day!"
"An' I'm gonna be outta town, Judge!" |
RishawiÂ’s husband Ali Hussein Al-Shimeri, who accompanied her to the hotel, was among three dead male Iraqi suicide bombers whose attacks killed mostly Jordanian wedding guests. |