Abdul Jalil Mustafa, Arab News

AMMAN, 24 June 2004 — Jordan’s State Security Court yesterday confirmed its previous verdicts passed against 10 members of Al-Qaeda group, including two sentenced to death, after finding them guilty of planning to attack US interests in the country, according to judicial sources.

The other eight defendants received sentences ranging between 7.5 years in jail and life imprisonment. The tribunal originally issued its decision in 2001, but the verdicts were overruled in 2003 by the Cassation Court which ordered their retrial.

One of the two defendants sentenced to death, Khader Abu Hosher, was accused of recruiting people since 1995 “to carry out military operations against US interests in Jordan”, according to the indictment statement.

The charges also included “plotting to carry out acts of terrorism, the unlicensed possession of arms and explosives and forging passports and official stamps”.

The 10 were among 28 suspects tried on charges of “conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts against US and Western interests” in Jordan. Defense lawyers appealed on grounds the defendants were entitled to a general amnesty issued by King Abdallah in 1999.

But the security court decided the amnesty was not applicable, because although the defendants were charged with plotting the foiled attacks in 1999, they had first hatched the plot as early as 1996. Charges against the 28 suspects of belonging to Al- Qaeda network were dropped by the court for lack of evidence. But Jordanian security sources say the men were associates of Al-Qaeda operative Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi.

Defense lawyers for the 10 said they would submit another appeal within 30 days under a legal process that allows unlimited hearings until the Court of Cassation gives a final verdict.

Meanwhile, according to a limited poll, the United States is seen by most people in four Arab countries as lacking credibility because of its occupation of Iraq and its biased approach toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The survey was conducted in March and April on samples of 1,200 people each in Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and the occupied Palestinian territories.

The majority of respondents in all countries said they believed that the US occupation of Iraq was prompted to usurp the country’s wealth and resources and bolster the security of Israel.

The anti-US skepticism took new heights when it came to the Palestinians; 95 percent of the people polled said they were not satisfied with the US approach toward this conflict.

Eighty-four percent of the people in Lebanon were not satisfied with the US role in Palestine.

(Additional input by Agencies)