Man jailed for plotting subversive acts in Karak

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld an August State Security Court (SSC) ruling sentencing a man to over three years in prison for plotting subversive acts in Karak Governorate in June 2018.

The defendant was also convicted of promoting the Daesh ideology to gain more sympathisers through social media and was handed a five-year prison sentence for both charges.

However, the court decided to reduce the sentence to three years and four months because “the defendant was young and deserved a second chance in life”.

Court documents said the defendant adopted the takfiri ideology in 2016 along with seven other defendants — who did not appeal their verdicts — after monitoring the Daesh terror group’s activities on social media.

 “The defendant was convinced that Daesh applied the proper Sharia [Islamic law] and he decided to spread their ideology using social media,” court papers said.

The defendant along with the six other men decided to join the terror group to fight in Syria, court papers said.

However, when the group felt that they were unable to travel to Syria, they decided to “launch terrorist activities inside the Kingdom,” according to court papers.

“The group of men decided to stash explosives in one of the defendants’ vehicle and detonate it in front of a Jordanian army base,” the court documents said.

However, they were arrested before being able to carry out any of their alleged plans, the court papers added.

The SSC general prosecutor asked the higher court to uphold the sentence, stating the SSC had followed the proper procedures when sentencing the defendant.

The defendant contested the SSC ruling through his lawyer, claiming that “the SCC did not submit any evidence that he used social media to spread the Daesh ideology”.

The lawyer also charged that the SSC prosecutor “failed to present any other solid evidence that would implicate his client with the charges”.

The lawyer further charged that his client was “subjected to torture and duress by the security agencies”.

However, the higher court ruled that the SSC had followed the proper procedures and the defendant deserved the verdict he had received.

“It was clear that the defendant confessed willingly to his desire to be part of the terror group and the authorities’ investigation procedures were correct and within the law,” the Court of Cassation said.

The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Majid Azab, Nayef Samarat, Ahmad Qatawneh and Mohammad Khashashneh.