Court jails three Syrians for attempting to arm rebel fighters

AMMAN — The State Security Court on Tuesday sentenced three Syrians to five-year prison terms for attempting to provide arms and explosives to the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

The defendants were found guilty of the “intent to carry out acts unauthorised by the government” in line with Article 118 of the Penal Code by attempting to provide munitions to rebel fighters in Syria.

The three men, who met in Jordan after fleeing Syria in the summer of 2013, gathered to produce and send over 40 packages of improvised explosive devices and remote control detonators to FSA forces in Syria, according to the charge sheet.

The three men, two of whom resided in Irbid, 80km north of Amman, and the third in the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Mafraq, were apprehended in July, according to court documents.

Tuesday’s ruling marked the longest prison term handed down to a non-Jordanian suspected of providing military support to the FSA.

Jordan, which supports a peaceful, political solution to the Syrian conflict, has enforced a crackdown along its 370-kilometre-long shared border with Syria to prevent the entry and exit of foreign fighters and weapons.