Trial of ‘Syria 12’ draws to a close

AMMAN — Defence attorneys on Monday gave their closing statements in the trial of 12 Islamists charged with attempting to join Syrian jihadist groups, challenging the court’s ability to try citizens for plotting military acts outside the country.

Attorney Taher Nassar questioned the State Security Court’s (SSC) charges of “plotting acts unauthorised by the government and attempting to cross into Syria illegally”, charging that the crime has no legal basis in the Jordanian Constitution.

“Where in the Jordanian Constitution does it allow authorities to deny a citizen’s right to leave the country? Where is the item in the Jordanian Constitution allowing authorities to arrest citizens for acts outside Jordan while they are still on Jordanian soil?” 

“How can their alleged act be declared against the government’s interest, when the Syrian Coalition of the Opposition has been recognised by the majority of the Arab world and Arab states continue to supply the Free Syrian Army with arms?” Nassar remarked.

The attorney claimed that the charges, which the court first began introducing in mid-2013 and are not directly related to an existing item in the Penal Code, were “politically motivated” and without a “constitutional basis”.

Authorities contend that the 12 men, all alleged members of the hardline Jihadi Salafist movement, had attempted to cross into Syria illegally to join Islamist militants, and represented a “security threat” to both Jordan and Syria.

The defendants insist that they did not know each other prior to their arrests, which occurred at a farm in northern Jordan and near the village of Al Turra, a few kilometres south of the Jordanian-Syrian border. 

Two of the accused, Hussein and Sufian Samamreh, claimed that they had enlisted the assistance of their fellow defendants in order to travel to Daraa to bring back relatives in the besieged southern Syrian city. 

If convicted, the defendants face prison sentences ranging from two-and-a-half to five years.

The court, presided over by Judge Ahmed Tarawneh, set the final hearing for April 28.

Also on Monday, the court opened the trial of two citizens charged with attempting to smuggle groups of suspected fighters into Syria.

In the opening trial of Amman resident Omar Ibrahim and Karak resident Hamzeh Majali, the court listened to the testimony of the General Intelligence Department officer who apprehended the two suspects near the 370-kilometre Jordanian-Syrian border in January this year.

The court adjourned the trial to April 21.

The case is the latest in a series involving Jordanians with suspected ties to Syrian Islamist groups, with authorities having detained 180 suspected jihadists over the past six months.

Officials maintain that the growing influx of foreign fighters into Syria represents a direct security threat to Jordan, with the SSC handing  down prison sentences of up to 15 years to over 20 individuals suspected of Syrian jihadist ties since December 2013.

More than 2,000 Jordanians are currently serving among the ranks of Islamist militant groups in Syria, according to Islamist sources, with the bulk fighting under the umbrella of the Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.