Three defence witnesses testified at the State Security Court (SSC) on Monday in the case of 17 men charged with plotting attacks against security officers and US forces training Iraqi troops in the Kingdom. The defendants, including a Syrian, have been formally charged with conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks against Jordanian anti-terrorism officers and US forces training Iraqi troops in Jordan. Other charges levelled against the 17 men by the military prosecution include carrying out and plotting activity aimed at undermining Jordan's relations with another country. The prosecution has also charged the defendants with recruiting people to fight in Iraq and raising funds for Jordanian fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi. The suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges during their opening trial in September. The witnesses all testified to meeting two of the defendants, Mufid and Amar, while praying in a Jerash mosque. They said the defendants never asked them for donations for fighters in Iraq and also confirmed that the two defendants had never asked them to fight in Iraq. At the end of the 30-minute session, the defence team asked the court for time to prepare their defence and summon more witnesses.
In a second trial at the SSC on Monday, Muamar Ahmad Jugheiber's lawyer asked the court for permission to summon seven witnesses to testify in the case. Jugheiber is standing trial along with Zarqawi on charges of plotting an attack against the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad in 2003. The Aug. 7 attack left 17 people dead, including one Jordanian and five Iraqi policemen, and injured dozens. Jugheiber and Zarqawi are charged with plotting subversive acts that led to the death of individuals.
Jugheiber's attorney Fathi Daradkeh informed the court that he plans to summon two prison inmates, a former General Intelligence Department officer, two engineers and a journalist. He also requested permission to summon the Jordanian envoy to Baghdad at the time of the bombing. Presiding Judge Fawaz Bqour agreed to Daradkeh's request with the exception of the Jordanian envoy. âThe court will make a decision on this request at a later stage in the trial,â Bqour said.
Jugheiber, who met Zarqawi in Iraq in 2002, pledged allegiance to him and embraced takfiri thoughts (labelling people as apostates), according to the prosecution charge sheet. The two plotted to attack foreigners residing in the Kingdom and Jordanian âinterests in Iraq, including the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad,â the charge sheet said. âUpon Zarqawi's instructions, Jugheiber monitored the embassy for three days then helped fill the car that was used in the attack with explosives." The SSC adjourned the trial until next Monday. Jugheiber and Zarqawi were sentenced to death in absentia by the SSC in April 2004 for plotting the assassination of US diplomat Laurance Foley outside his Amman home on Oct. 28, 2002. Jugheiber was arrested in Iraq in May 2004 by US forces and handed over to the Jordanian authorities. He is currently being retried in the Foley case on charges of subversive acts that led to the death of an individual.