Jordan condemns al-Qaida's al-Zarqawi to death

A military court today condemned nine men to death , including al-Qaida-in-Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for plotting a chemical attack that would have killed thousands of people in Jordan’s capital.

“Bin Laden’s organisation is rising and we will be back!” the defendants shouted after the sentencing, referring to the al-Qaida terror network led by Osama bin Laden.

Al-Zarqawi and three others received the death penalty in absentia.

It was the third death penalty that Jordanian courts have handed down to al-Zarqawi, who runs the most notorious insurgent group in Iraq.

The plot’s alleged mastermind, Azmi al-Jayousi, and four co-defendants were in the dock when the judge condemned them to death for the 2004 plot, which security officials foiled before it could be carried out.

The court sentenced two of the 13 defendants to prison terms of between one and three years, and acquitted another two defendants.