Iraqi man sentenced to 15 years for plotting ‘subversive acts’

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Sunday sentenced a 50-year-old Iraqi man to 15 years in prison after convicting him of subversive acts in the Kingdom.

Khaled Rabiee, who, the court found, was affiliated with an Iranian brigade and plotted to carry out terrorist attacks in the country, received 15 years after being convicted by the SSC of transporting explosive substances with illicit intent, a senior judicial source said.

Rabiee, who also holds a Norwegian nationality, was acquitted of the charges of subjecting the country to hostile acts and belonging to an illegal organisation, the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

Court papers said the defendant, who worked for Iran’s Bayt Al Maqdis brigades, had 45kg of highly explosive materials stashed in Jerash Governorate, 48km north of Amman.

“The defendant had met with a Lebanese man who informed him that the explosives were hidden in a forest area in Jerash ready to be used,” the court transcripts said.

Rabiee, who was recruited by the Iranian intelligence in the 1980s, was plotting to “use the explosives to carry out terrorist attacks on the Jordanian-Israeli border,” the court transcript added.

The defendant was arrested last year, before being able to carry out any of his alleged plans, the court papers said.

The defendant took SSC investigators to the hidden explosives in the forest, the court added.

Sunday’s verdict will be automatically reviewed by the Cassation Court within the next 30 days.