Terrorist killers sentenced to death

Jordan’s military court convicted eight Muslim militants and sentenced them to death for the 2002 killing of a US aid official in a terror conspiracy linked to al-Qaida.

Among those sentenced to death was Jordanian militant Ahmed al-Khalayleh, better known as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is thought to be a close associate of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

Al-Zarqawi was among six defendants who were tried in absentia – his whereabouts are unknown.

US officials have offered a €9m reward for al-Zarqawi’s capture, saying he is trying to build a network of foreign militants in neighbouring Iraq to work on behalf of al-Qaida, the terror network held responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The court also handed down jail terms ranging from six to 15 years for two other men convicted in the conspiracy, which began with the killing of Laurence Foley, 60, an Amman-based administrator for the US Agency for International Development.

Foley was gunned down outside his Amman home on October 28, 2002.

Foley’s death was the only attack linked to the Jordan conspiracy, which allegedly targeted unspecified American and Israeli interests in Jordan.

Eleven Libyan, Syrian, Palestinian and Jordanian men had been charged in the conspiracy.

The five in custody – Salem bin Suweid, Yasser Freihat, Mohammed Amin Abu-Saeed, Numan Al-Hirsh and Mohammed De’mes – had pleaded innocent. They told the court their guilty confessions had been extracted under duress.

Libyan mastermind bin Suweid and Jordanian co-conspirator Freihat also had produced witnesses who testified the men were not at the crime scene when Foley was killed.

Military prosecutors had charged bin Suweid, 41, with firing the gun that killed Foley, and Freihat, 29, with driving the getaway car.