The defence team for nine men standing trial at the State Security Court (SSC) for plotting the first-ever Al Qaeda attack in the Kingdom, on Monday asked the tribunal to acquit their clients of all charges. The men, part of a group of 13 suspects including Jordanian fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi, are charged with plotting subversive acts against the General Intelligence Department (GID), the Prime Ministry and the American embassy in Amman. The state prosecution also charged the group with possessing and manufacturing explosives with illicit intent, and possessing an automatic weapon with the intention of using it illegally. âMy client [the main suspect in the case Azmi Jaiousi] is a carpenter with a ninth-grade education so it is impossible for him to know chemistry or the equations needed to mix deadly chemical substances,â Jaiousi's lawyer Samih Khreis told the court. Khreis also contested the interrogation procedures conducted by the state prosecutor and the security forces, charging that his client was detained for over a month for interrogation and subjected to torture and duress.
Although the state prosecutor listed in his charge sheet that he was a target for the group, at the same time he was the interrogator, Khreis said. âIt was impossible for the prosecutor to be objective in his interrogation knowing he was targeted by my client and the rest of the defendants. This is human nature,â Khreis said.
The lawyer also referred to the chemical substances allegedly found in the possession of the defendants, which were destroyed by the authorities shortly after the group was arrested. âBy destroying the chemicals we lost our chance of examining these substances to establish if they were really dangerous as the prosecution has alleged,â Khreis added.
In July 2005, Jaiousi and three other defendants admitted that they targeted the regime, the government and the GID in 2004. Jaiousi appeared on Jordan Television shortly after his arrest in April 2004 and described how he and other group members bought and manufactured chemical explosives under the guidance and support of Zarqawi. âI believe Jaiousi was only the preliminary stages and his situation matches that of a person who wanted to launch an attack but changed his mind or was arrested before being able to carry out his plans,â Khreis said.
The rest of the defence team reiterated Khreis' claims in their closing arguments, saying the chemical substances destroyed by the authorities are available in the local market and there is no law that bans people from buying them. âTheir plans were all in the preliminary stages and they never used any of the substances allegedly found in their possession or launched any attack,â lawyer Mohammad Muhiar said.
The chemical substances the prosecution referred to are used in the agricultural sector and to manufacture batteries, Muhiar added. Muhiar, Khreis and the rest of the defence team charged that the prosecution refused to appoint lawyers for their clients during the interrogation and asked the court to acquit their clients of all charges.
| I'm not too sure that a defense of no crime having been committed because the cops caught them is the right way to go, but I'm not a lawyer, much less an Arab, so maybe it makes sense to somebody. I don't think the "my client is a semiliterate dumbass" is a particularly good defense, either... |