Zarqawi sentenced in absence

Jordan’s military court today sentenced wanted terror leader Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi to 15 years jail and a detained associate to three years behind bars for the 2003 Jordanian Embassy attack in Baghdad that killed 18 people.

The court convicted al-Zarqawi, Iraq’s most wanted terrorist, and Al-Miqdad Mohammad al-Dabbas, 24, of conspiracy to attack the embassy.

The case related to planned attacks on the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad, the offices of the Jordanian military attache in Baghdad and unspecified American targets in Iraq.

The court heard that the two Jordanians met in Iraq in November 2003 to plan an attack on the embassy following an August bombing on the same building that killed 18 people, which al-Zarqawi has also been accused of.

Al-Dabbas was accused of undertaking surveillance on Jordanian targets in Baghdad, including the embassy, and providing al-Zarqawi with descriptions of the building, perimeter walls, staff and security.

Al-Dabbas had pleaded innocent throughout the trial, which began December 13. The guilty verdict can be appealed.

Al-Zarqawi is al-Qaida’s pointman in Iraq who is on the run with a multi million pound bounty on his head.

He was tried in absentia hile al-Dababs was arrested in Iraq on February 26 and handed over later to Jordanian authorities.

Al-Zarqawi has been linked to numerous other crimes in Jordan and sentenced to death in the plot to kill 60-year-old US diplomat Laurence Foley, who was gunned down October 28, 2002, outside his Amman home.

He is believed to be directing anti-US attacks and kidnappings in Iraq, where the al-Qaida group he leads has beheaded several foreign hostages.