Man gets 9-year jail term for plotting subversive acts

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a March State Security Court (SSC) ruling, sentencing a man to nine years in prison after convicting him of plotting subversive acts against the Jordanian security agencies in Zarqa in early 2020.

The defendant, a Zarqa resident, was also convicted of promoting the Daesh ideology through social media to gain more sympathisers and was handed the maximum punishment.

Court documents said the defendant adopted the takfiri ideology in 2014 after monitoring the Daesh group’s activities on social media.

“The defendant was convinced that Daesh applied the proper Sharia [Islamic law] and decided to spread its ideology to his friends and relatives using various social media means,” court documents said.

The defendant decided to purchase a machine gun to attack security patrols guarding vital security and government institutes in Zarqa, court papers said. 

However, the defendant was arrested by security agencies before being able to carry out any of his plots, court papers added.

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

The defendant contested the SSC ruling through his lawyer, claiming that the SSC prosecutor “failed to present any other solid evidence that would implicate his client with the charges”.

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

 The Court of Cassation judges were Mohammad Ibrahim, Majid Azab, Hayel Amr, Fawzi Nahar and Nayef Samarat.