Jordan indicts al-Zarqawi over terror plot

Jordan’s military prosecutor indicted 13 alleged Muslim militants today, including fugitive Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, for an al-Qaida-linked plot to attack targets in the country with chemical and conventional weapons.

Lieutenant Colonel Mahmoud Obeidat summoned the nine terror suspects who are in custody and read them the charges listed in the indictment, officials said.

They said the four at large, including al-Zarqawi, were also charged and, like the nine others in detention, would be tried in absentia. A trial date has not been fixed, but the trial should begin in early to mid November, the officials said.

The military court is expected to issue a 10-day grace period this week for the four fugitives to surrender to authorities – a process which precedes the opening of the trial. In Jordan, charges become formal when read aloud at the opening of the trial.

The charges on seven counts include conspiring to commit terror attacks in Jordan, possessing and manufacturing explosive material and affiliation with a banned group, the officials added. The group in question has been identified as Kata’eb al-Tawhid, Arabic for the Battalions of Monotheism.

If convicted on all counts, defendants could be sentenced to death.

Security officials and, in televised confessions some of the detained suspects themselves, have said the plot was linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

Besides the 13 suspects, four were killed in a police shootout on April 20, when the terror plot was uncovered and foiled with most members of the Jordanian cell arrested.