Al-Qaida linked terror suspects obstruct trial

Nine terror suspects, allegedly involved in an al-Qaida-linked plot to carry out chemical and conventional attacks in Jordan, obstructed today’s opening of their trial, refusing to acknowledge military judges hearing the case.

Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida’s chief in Iraq who is on the run with a €18.8m bounty on his head, and three other fugitives are being tried in their absence with the nine men who have been in police custody since April.

Azmi al-Jayousi, allegedly an al-Zarqawi co-conspirator and head of the Jordan-based terror cell, refused to answer the chief military judge when he sought the routine verification of the defendants’ identities at the opening of the trial in Amman.

“I and the other defendants don’t want to speak to you until you heed our demands to permit our families to visit us and allow us to join the cellblocks of political prisoners,” al-Jayousi told Colonel Fawaz Buqour, president of the State Security Court.

Buqour responded: “We’ll see.” Military prosecutors said the defendants were confined to solitary confinement in an undisclosed Jordanian prison.

“Go to hell!,” al-Jayousi shouted, sporting a beard and standing in the dock with the eight other defendants, most of them in dark blue prison uniforms and chained at the ankle. Police had removed their handcuffs minutes before the hearing opened.

Buqour adjourned the session until December 22 to allow the defendants to appoint their lawyers.

Charges against eight of the men include conspiring to commit terrorism, possessing and manufacturing explosives and affiliation with a banned group.

If convicted in the military court, 12 of the men – including al-Zarqawi - could be sentenced to death.

Al-Zarqawi, 38, is believed to be directing anti-US attacks and kidnappings in Iraq, and his group has beheaded several hostages, including Briton Ken Bigley.

He has already been sentenced to death by the same military court for the 2002 killing of a US aid worker in Jordan.