Cablegate: Terrorism Trials Update

VZCZCXYZ0000
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAM #7630/01 2780618
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 050618Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4640
INFO RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD 3863
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 2480

UNCLAS AMMAN 007630

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PHUM ASEC IZ SY JO
SUBJECT: TERRORISM TRIALS UPDATE

REF: A. AMMAN 7277
B. AMMAN 4685
C. AMMAN 2118
D. AMMAN 6824

1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Jordan's State Security Court (SSC) handed
down sentences in six terrorism-related cases and began
proceedings against Nabil Ahmad Issa Jaaoura, a Jordanian who
allegedly killed a British tourist at Amman's Roman
Amphitheater in early September, and Ziyad Khalaf Karbouli,
an Iraqi charged with murdering a Jordanian citizen in Iraq
in September 2005. The SSC continued proceedings against
seven alleged al-Qaida militants in the Queen Alia airport
plot, and revealed that it would announce verdicts for the
Azmi Jaiousi prison-break plot on November 1. END SUMMARY.
RISHAWI SENTENCED
2. (SBU) The SSC on September 21 sentenced seven to hang,
including would-be suicide bomber Sajidah al-Rishawi, for the
November 2005 Amman Hotel bombings (ref A). The other six
defendants -- Othman Ismail Dalimi; Hiam Hassan; Walid
Hassan; Nihad Rishawi; Karim Jassim Fahdawi; and Mazen
Mohammad Shehadeh -- were tried in absentia, and are believed
to be in Iraq. The Court of Cassation will review the
sentence. If the sentence is upheld, the King must sign a
death warrant before the execution can take place.

KHALAYLEH SENTENCED

3. (SBU) On September 27 the SSC sentenced Omar Jamil Nazzal
al-Khalayleh (a cousin of the late terrorist Abu Mus'ab
al-Zarqawi), Wissam Dimawi, and Riyad Udwan to six months in
prison for "subjecting the Kingdom to hostile acts." Hassan
Salem Ajemi was handed a three-year prison term for
"undermining Jordan's relations with another country." A
fifth defendant, Raed Nawaysheh, who was tried in absentia,
was given a five-year sentence for subjecting the Kingdom to
hostile activities. The defendants, who were arrested in
May, plotted to recruit fighters in Syria and then move into
Iraq to fight against US and Iraqi forces, according to the
GOJ. The defendants reportedly shouted, "God is great" upon
hearing their verdicts (ref B.)
BREIZAT CELL ) JIPTC PLOTTERS SENTENCED
4. (SBU) On September 13, the SSC sentenced Ma'adh Breizat,
Ibrahim Jahawha, and Faisal Rweidan to 20 years of hard labor
for plotting attacks against Americans in Jordan. The three
were initially sentenced to death; however the court amended
the sentence to "give the defendants a second chance in
life." Obada Hiyari received a ten-year sentence for
plotting subversive acts. Upon hearing the verdict, the four
men shouted, "God is great" and "God won't ignore tyrants,
you criminals and enemies of Allah." According to the charge
sheet, the defendants decided in late 2004 to attack
Americans who were training Iraqi police officers. The
defendants followed American instructors from the Jordan
International Police Training Center to a house near the
American Embassy in Amman in August 2005. The defendants
repeated their surveillance activities several times and were
arrested by authorities on August 31, 2005 according to court
documents (ref C).
SENTENCES IN KHATTAB BRIGADE CASE

5. (SBU) On September 13, the SSC handed down prison
sentences ranging between 10 and 15 years hard labor to six
men accused of having plotted to attack American citizens,
nightclubs, liquor shops, and hotels in Amman and Aqaba.
According to the GOJ, the defendants sought to spray cyanide
on the doorknobs of nightclubs to poison customers, but could
not buy the chemical without a license. They later switched
plans to conduct their attacks using machine-guns, according
to the indictment. The group's plot was foiled when four
members of the group, Hamdi Ahmad Abdallah Ali, Lu'ay Hisham
Abd-al-Qadir al-Sharif, Muhammad Hasan Uqlah al-Umri, and
Muhammad Awdah Ali, were arrested in mid-September 2005. Two
of the defendants, Usama Amin al-Shihabi and Haytham
Abd-al-Karim al-Sa'di, were tried in absentia and are
believed to be in Lebanon. The cell's members received
weapons training in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern
Lebanon from the two fugitives, according to court papers
(ref C).
TAXI DRIVER SENTENCED FOR WEAPONS SMUGGLING
6. (SBU) On July 19, the SSC sentenced Nizar Bahjat Al Rifai,
a Jordanian taxi driver who worked the Amman-Damascus-Beirut
route, to seven-and-a-half years in prison for smuggling arms
from Lebanon to Jordan. The defendant was first handed a
15-year prison term for bringing six rifles and ammunition
into the country in January, but the court immediately
reduced the sentence "because the defendant is young and to
give him a second chance in life." The defendant bought the
weapons from a shop in Lebanon on January 15 and hid them
over his car's gasoline tank, court papers said. While
reentering Jordan via Syria, border control guards caught the
defendant smuggling the rifles.
MAN SENTENCED FOR E-MAIL THREATS
7. (SBU) On July 13, the SSC sentenced a Syrian man to
two-and-a-half-years in prison for sending e-mails in which
he threatened terrorist acts in Jordan. Yousef Daghestani
was first handed a five-year prison term by the SSC, but his
sentence was immediately reduced "to give him a second chance
in life because the defendant is young and lives away from
home." Under the user name "911" and with the password
"blood," the defendant posted threatening text in the Jordan
Information Center's (JIC) online political forum following
the November 9, 2005, triple bombings in Amman. The text of
the e-mail read: "If you think that you have ended us then
you are mistaken. Watch out for new and mass explosions at a
strategic place, which has many infidels... I demand JD1
million in ransom and the release of my sister Sajida
(referring to would-be suicide bomber Sajida Rishawi). Death
has approached you infidels," according to court documents.
In Daghestani's three-page written testimony, he claimed that
Jordanian authorities subjected him to torture shortly after
his arrest in late November 2005 (ref C).
JAAOURA TRIAL BEGINS
8. (SBU) The trial of Nabil Ahmad Issa Jaaoura, the Jordanian
man who killed a British tourist and injured five others in a
shooting at Amman's Roman Amphitheater in early September
(ref D) began October 4. The five wounded tourists included
two Britons, a Dutch national, a New Zealander and an
Australian. The state prosecutor officially charged Jaaoura
with carrying out terrorist attacks, causing the death of a
person, and possessing an unlicensed gun, according to media.
Officials said Jaaoura confessed to the shootings, and that
he claimed he sought revenge for the killing of his two
brothers in an Israeli raid on Lebanon in 1982. Jaaoura
claimed that the "Israeli aggression against Lebanon in
August" pushed him to carry out his plans, court documents
said. Shortly after his arrest, government officials
announced that Jaaoura "worked alone and had no connection to
any domestic or foreign organizations."
KARBOULI CASE OPENS
9. (SBU) On September 20, Ziyad Khalaf Karbouli pled not
guilty to charges of murdering a Jordanian citizen in Iraq in
September 2005. Karbouli, who appeared on Jordan state
television shortly after his arrest in May, confessed to
killing Jordanian truck driver Khalid Dasouqi in September
last year and abducting two Moroccan diplomats while on their
way from Amman to Baghdad. During the trial, Karbouli
shouted that "Dasouqi was a tyrant and an apostate," and
"there are 4,000 Jordanian drivers working for the Americans
in Iraq and there will be a Karbouli out there every day to
kill them." He added that Arab leaders race to please and
serve "Israelis and Americans, and if they kill us we will be
martyrs but they will burn in hell." He finished his tirade
by attacking Pope Benedict XVI for his recent remarks.
Karbouli and 13 other suspects, who remain at large, are
charged with plotting subversive acts that led to the death
of an individual, possessing explosives with illicit intent,
and belonging to an illegal organization. Karbouli's
court-appointed lawyer Adel Tarawneh told the court on
September 20 that Iraqis had the right to defend their
country because foreign forces occupy it.
AIRPORT ATTACK CASE CONTINUES
10. (SBU) Proceedings against seven alleged al-Qaida
militants charged with plotting to carry out suicide attacks
against Amman's Queen Alia International Airport (QAIA) and
resort hotels at the Dead Sea continued throughout the
summer. Four defendants -- a Libyan and three Iraqis -- have
been in police custody since late February. The other three
defendants -- two Iraqis and one Saudi -- are at large and
are being tried in absentia. If convicted, all face the
death penalty. On September 20, a police officer testifying
in the case told the court he searched the Amman apartment of
one of the Iraqi defendants, Abdul Karim Jamili, and found
3.6 kilograms of PE-4A heavy explosives concealed inside a
children's construction game. According to the charge sheet,
some of the suspects rented apartments in Zarqa (north of
Amman) and Amman's Jabal Hussein neighborhood from which to
launch attacks against hotels at the Dead Sea and Aqaba in
July 2005, "because the hotels were frequented by Americans
and Israelis." The group claims that the al-Qaida network in
Iraq wanted to claim responsibility for the foiled attack
(ref B.)
JAIOUSI PRISON BREAK: SSC TO ANNOUNCE VERDICT NOVEMBER 1
11. (SBU) The SSC announced that it will issue a verdict
November 1 in the case of eight men standing trial for aiding
Azmi Jaiousi in his failed bid to escape from prison. On
April 25, the SSC charged Jaiousi, the mastermind behind an
al-Qaida plan to launch chemical attacks in the Kingdom, and
eight others with plotting a prison breakout. According to
the prosecutor, Jaiousi and Mohammad Kutkut, both inmates at
Swaqa prison, plotted the breakout shortly before Kutkut's
release in November 2005. On his release, Kutkut contacted
several militants to plan Jaiousi's escape, and later placed
machineguns and ammunition in a getaway vehicle before
heading to the prison in late January 2006, according to the
prosecutor (ref B.)
Hale

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