Jordan court sentences six bin Laden men to hang

AMMAN, Jordan (Reuters) -- Jordan's State Security Court on Monday sentenced to death six Muslim militants linked to Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden for plotting attacks against Israeli and U.S. targets in the kingdom.

The six, four of whom are at large, were among 28 militants standing trial on charges including possession of weapons and explosives, membership of bin Laden's group and plotting bombings during millennium celebrations last December.

The court also sentenced two other militants to hang but commuted their sentences to life imprisonment.

It acquitted six defendants and handed down 15-year jail sentences to the rest. Some of these sentences were commuted to between seven-and-a-half and 10 years.

"Due to the dangerous crimes and their effect on the country's economy I urge the court to impose the heaviest punishments on them," State Security Court prosecutor Mahmoud Obeidat said before Chief Judge Lieutenant Colonel Tayel al-Raqad pronounced the verdicts.

The verdicts will automatically be appealed to a higher Court of Cassation. Jordan has commuted all previous death sentences imposed for political crimes.

Twelve of the 28 suspects were tried in absentia. The verdicts and sentences, the climax of a five-month trial, were read during a court session attended by the 16 detained defendants.

The suspects in court had denied links to bin Laden and charges that they had planned strikes at tourist sites frequented by Israeli and U.S. tourists.

"You are the criminals, Allahu Akbar (God is Greatest)," shouted Saed Hijazi, 25, after the court commuted his death sentence to a life prison term.

Many militants in conservative Jordan fear Western tourism could harm Islamic values, a fear compounded by the arrival of Israeli tourists since a peace treaty in 1994.

The court dismissed defense allegations that their clients' testimonies were extracted under duress and beatings in the presence of intelligence officers.

Spiritual mentor acquitted

The two men sentenced to hang who were at court are ringleader Khodor Abu Hoshar and Osama Sammar. Among prominent convicts sentenced to death in absentia was Munir Maqdah, a Palestinian guerrilla commander in Lebanon.

One of the acquitted was Issam Mohammad Taher Barqawi, 40, a spiritual mentor for many Muslim militants he met in Afghanistan who fought Soviet forces.

Most of those convicted are Arabs of Palestinian origin who believe in Israel's destruction.

A Jordanian Islamist living in Britain, Omar Abu Omar, better known as Abu Kutaida, was sentenced in absentia to 15 years for his alleged role in financing the group.

Zein al-Abdeen Hassan, a Palestinian with an Egyptian travel document who lives in Pakistan and was said by prosecution to be a key bin Laden aide, was also given a 15-year prison term.

Afghanistan-based bin Laden is wanted by the United States on suspicion of masterminding explosions at two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998 that killed more than 200 people.

USA Today newspaper said on Monday that Jordanian intelligence officials recently gave U.S. intelligence agencies computer-disk copies of a six-volume manual used by bin Laden to train recruits at his camps in Afghanistan.

The manual also instructed recruits on how to assemble bombs similar to those that destroyed the U.S. embassies, the newspaper said.

USA Today, quoting senior U.S. intelligence officials, reported that the manual was seized from one of the 16 men on trial in Amman.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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