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Jordan’s State Security Court Rules against 9 Suspects of Involvement with Terror Groups | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Jordanian security vehicles seen near the General Intelligence directorate offices near al Baqaa Refugee Camp, north of Amman, Jordan, June 6, 2016. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed


Amman- Jordan’s State Security Court ruled on Tuesday against eight nationals and a Palestinian arrested under suspicions of involvement with terror groups and pledging allegiance to ultra-hardline group ISIS. The verdicts sentenced each to a decade in hard labor.

Islamist groups lawyer Musa al-Abdallat, defending seven out of the nine suspects says that the verdicts were deviated from constitutional measures. The indictments are subject constitutional range of spending three to fifteen years in hard labor—but the proceedings against his clients have been heavily influenced by an earlier standoff between Jordanian special forces and fighters in a medieval castle in the Jordanian city of Karak. The shootings killed at least 13, eight of whom were security officers.

Some of the defendants were residents of the Jordanian capital of Amman, along with other cities in including Ma’an and Zarqa and Irbid, said Abdallat.

One of the suspects was arrested at the Syrian border, after attempting to join the terror group ISIS, and reach his wife currently present in the war-zone.

“Four of the defendants, who are from Zarqa, Irbid and Amman, were tried on charges of promoting extremist ideology, though two of the defendants arrested in Turkey—they were later handed over Jordan landing them at the State Security Court,” said Abdallat.

“One of the defendants, a Palestinian carrying a Jordanian passport, was arrested by Turkish authorities and handed over to Jordanian authorities, which later put him under trial based on charges issued for enrollment in armed organizations.”

“However, those crimes were not committed on Jordanian soil,” explained Abdallat. He also demanded that the defendant is a Palestinian and must be handed to Palestine authorities, and not charged in Jordan, calling for the 10-year sentence to be immediately revoked.

More so, since 2011, Jordanian authorities prosecuted many activists in the State Security Court under the vague charge of “undermining the political regime” – a “terrorism” provision.

Similarly, the State Security Court on Tuesday issued a seven-year jail sentence to a man who threatened a bomb attack against the Queen Alia International Airport and to kill thousands of Jordanians to avenge for “extremists” in Syria.

The 21-year-old convict was charged with threatening to conduct terrorist acts in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Law, while the SSC found him not guilty on charges of providing false information on an act of terror, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

According to the charge list, the convict sent last August an SMS to the airport helpdesk, penetrated the website of the airport and sent a threat to attack the airport and kill thousands of Jordanians to avenge for ISIS extremists in Syria, in response to Jordan’s participation in an international coalition to fight the terror group.

He was also indicted of providing false information of having a bomb on an airplane and threatening to kill three airport employees.