JORDAN: Failed suicide bomber Sajida al Rishawi appears in court in Amman

Record ID: 357959

  • Title: JORDAN: Failed suicide bomber Sajida al Rishawi appears in court in Amman
  • Date: 24th April 2006
  • Summary: CLOSE OF DAMAGE TO HOTEL / AMBULANCE
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jordan
  • Country: Jordan
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAEN6QNREU1088YJZW60DNRRWUV
  • Story Text: A failed suicide bomber charged over the killing of 60 people in three hotel bombing in Jordan made her first court appearance on Monday (April 24) after confessing on state television six months ago.
    Chief Judge Fawa Baqour adjourned the trial to a date to be set later when Sajida al-Rishawi, 35, said she had no lawyers to defend her against charges of conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts, causing death and destruction, and the illegal possession of weapons and explosives.
    The military judge instructed the court to set in motion a process to get the country's bar association to appoint lawyers to defend her.
    Rishawi, an Iraqi from the town of Ramadi, faces the death sentence if found guilty by a state security court for the attacks on three Amman hotels on November 9 by her husband and two other male Iraqi suicide bombers.
    Eight other people also charged in connection with the attacks, including al-Qaeda's Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, are still at large.
    Rishawi tried to blow herself up during the attacks but her detonator failed to explode, Jordanian officials said.
    She was arrested shortly afterwards when she tried to take refuge with the family of her sister's husband, a Jordanian killed in clashes with U.S. forces in Iraq.
    Zarqawi, a Jordanian whose real name is Ahmed Fadhil al-Khalayleh, has already been sentenced to death in absentia for involvement in plots to destabilise Jordan.
    Al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the Amman hotel attacks and vowed more strikes against Jordan, which supported the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
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