Three sentenced to life for plotting terror attacks

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Wednesday sentenced three terrorists convicted of plotting terrorist attacks and receiving money to carry out their plans to 15-year jail terms.

In July, 2016, General Intelligence Department personnel foiled the three terrorists' plot to carry out terrorist attacks including a rocket attack aimed at a US plane at the Marka Military Airport in eat Aman, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The three men also planned to fire at a military bus, kill foreign tourists and blow up a security checkpoint with a car bomb in downtown Amman.

according to the case documnets cited by Petra, SSC established that the main convict, a Jordanian, was fighting with Al Qaeda in Yemen in 2012, before Yemini security institutions detained him for two years in a correctional centre, where he met two Yemeni members of Al Qaeda. 

After his return to Jordan, the mastermind contacted the two Yemenis, who introduced him to a third member of Al Qaeda, Petra added.

During an online call with his Yemeni contacts, the Jordanian informed them of a US plane landing at the Marka Military Airport, and they agreed to target it with an RPG projectile to be delivered from Syria. He was asked to wait for further instructions before the call disconnected. 

In 2016, he failed to leave for Syria to join Al Qaeda. 

He then decided to carry out another attack in Jordan and plotted to target a military bus near the Hashemite Square, a plaza in downtown Amman, to kill foreign tourists near the Roman Amphitheatre, and to attack a security station at the nearby Raghadan Bus Terminal. 

Afterwards, Al Qaeda expressed its readiness to provide money and consultation to help him execute the plots, the court papers said.

After the two Yemeni accomplices agreed with the main plotter to implement the attacks and secure the necessary arms, he contacted Al Qaeda members in Yemen, who required him to watch online courses on assassination and manufacturing bombs.

He was ensured to receive $6,000 to cover the weapons’ costs  and to pay instalments of the car bought to be booby-trapped, to carry out the attacks. 

In another trial, the SSC issued sentences ranging between three to five years with hard labour against five people who promoted Daesh ideologies on social media outlets.

The court released another suspect charged with promoting Daesh ideology due to lack of evidence, Petra reported.