Jordanian politicians plead not guilty in trial

Three politicians who attended the wake of the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq pleaded not guilty to instigating sectarian strife when their trial began in Jordan today.

Mohammed Abu Fares, Jaafar al-Hourani and Ali Abu Sukkar provoked widespread indignation in Jordan when in June they paid their condolences at the family home of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The Jordanian terrorist planned the attacks on Amman hotels last November in which three suicide bombers killed 60 people. After the wake, Abu Fares described al-Zarqawi as a “martyr”, adding he would not apply the term to the “mobs and ignorant people” killed in the bombings.

Several thousand people protested at his words and actions in two demonstrations.

Entering his plea today, Abu Fares said he was “not guilty” and had been “unjustly” detained. He did not elaborate.

The officials of the State Security Court accorded special treatment to the legislators, allowing them to stand outside the dock and without having to wear handcuffs or shackles on their ankles as is usual in the military court.

The politicians pleaded innocent to “harming national unity by instigating sectarian strife and fuelling national discord”. If convicted, they face up to three years in jail.

A 25-member defence team led by the president of Jordan’s Bar Association, Saleh Armouti – who also sits on Saddam Hussein’s defence team – told the judges that the defendants should not be in detention and argued for their release on bail.

The court rejected the application without explanation.

A fourth politician, Ibrahim al-Mashwakhi, was detained for visiting the al-Zarqawi home in Zarqa, northeast of Amman, on June 11. But Jordan’s chief military prosecutor released him earlier this month, saying “his action didn’t constitute a crime”.

The four politicians belong to the Islamic Action Front, the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm. The Brotherhood has rejected Abu Fares’s remarks and reiterated that it condemns the Amman hotel blasts of November 9.

Al-Zarqawi, who led al Qaida in Iraq, was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq on June 7.