Defendants in deadly attack on police officers plead not guilty

AMMAN — Defendants being tried for the assault on a Public Security Department (PSD) patrol, during which Captain Jamal Darawsheh and Corporal Usama Jarawreh were killed, pleaded not guilty before the State Security Court on Sunday. 

The three defendants are charged with carrying out terrorist acts by using automatic rifles that led to the killing of one person, and carrying out terrorist acts using automatic rifles that caused damage to a vehicle, according to the charge sheet. 

At the hearing before the SSC military panel, the defendants said they cannot afford a lawyer. 

The court appointed three attorneys for them, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported, especially as the penalties for the charges levelled against them could reach up to the death sentence. 

The court decided to reconvene on Tuesday to listen to witnesses’ testimonies, according to Petra.   

Earlier this month, Darawsheh and Jarawreh were in their patrol vehicle near the Samma intersection to the west of Irbid, some 80km north of Amman, when assailants reportedly fired bullets at their vehicle.

Jarawreh, who was driving the vehicle, was injured and lost control of the car, which veered off and toppled down the road.

Following investigations, police arrested the three suspects currently being tried.

A PSD statement issued in the wake of the arrest said one of the suspects was the brother of a man from the village of Samma who was killed in a shoot-out with police in early October when police were trying to arrest him for alleged vandalism of an Islamic cemetery in the northern town.

The other two men were a friend and a cousin of the prime suspect, who planned the attack against the highway patrol car, the statement said.

Police found weapons and sharp tools when they raided their houses, according to the PSD statement.