JORDAN: JORDANIAN MILITARY COURT SENTENCES EIGHT ISLAMISTS TO LIFE SENTENCES FOR SPATE OF ARSON ATTACKS IN 1998

Record ID: 862212

  • Title: JORDAN: JORDANIAN MILITARY COURT SENTENCES EIGHT ISLAMISTS TO LIFE SENTENCES FOR SPATE OF ARSON ATTACKS IN 1998
  • Date: 27th April 1999
  • Summary: AMMAN, JORDAN (APRIL 27, 1999) (REUTERS) LV/MV EXTERIOR MILITARY COURT AT MARKA IN AMMAN/ SIGN IN ARABIC READING "MILITARY COURTS" (2 SHOTS) MV THREE MEMBERS OF THE MILITARY POLICE STANDING WITH RIFLES IN FRONT OF THE COURT GATE
  • Embargoed: 12th May 1999 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: AMMAN, JORDAN
  • City:
  • Country: Jordan
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA9AB3YXSJ5WOX9P1Q6YRZ2T9JD
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: A Jordanian military court has sentenced eight Islamists to life sentences for a spate of arson attacks last year after being charged for conspiring to carry out terrorist acts.
    Chief military judge Colonel Yousef Faouri said the court had reached a unanimous decision on Tuesday (April 27) before reading the verdict in the trial of the 13 Moslem fundamentalists named in the charge sheet as members of the Reform and Challenge Movement.
    The court released four defendants for lack of evidence on the main charge of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism, which carries a maximum sentence of death.
    The other defendant, junior police officer Khaled al-Arouri, was jailed for 15 years for helping plant an explosive in the garage of a security complex.
    Three men were sentenced in absentia including the alleged leader Majed al-Hajebee, who was accused of helping set up the clandestine organisation.
    The prosecution said the previously unknown group was set up in 1996 among a close knit group of youths attending religious lessons in the predominantly working class Ruseifah area near Amman.It said the group espoused violence to achieve its goal of turning Jordan into a purist Islamist state.
    Hajebee was allegedly in the United States while Omar Abu-Omar and Issa Serji were in the United Arab Emirates, according to the prosecution.
    Lesser charges of illegal possession and manufacture of explosives and illegal membership of an outlawed group were waived under a general amnesty issued by King Abdullah to mark his accession in February.
    The defendants, who have the right of appeal, might also be eligible for release under a special pardon which the government said would be announced soon, according to legal sources.
    King Abdullah, who has met leading opposition figures including Moslem Brotherhood leader Abdul-Mejeed al-Thuneibat, has signalled a willingness to accommodate some of their demands for greater democracy.
    The group was arrested last year in a security clampdown after a spate of arson attacks targeting intelligence personnel, public places, security installations and a U.S.-run school.
    The crude bombings and arson attacks caused no reported casualties but shocked the tightly policed city which has rarely seen such incidents.
    Faouri made no reference in his summing up of any foreign backing for the group, in marked contrast to earlier official suggestions that the incidents had the hallmarks of past foreign attempts to undermine the country's security.
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