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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: March 21, 2006 |
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A defense lawyer urged a military court Monday to acquit six men accused of plotting to attack Western targets, claiming they shared the "wishful thinking" of many Jordanians who wanted to harm Americans and Jews.
Hikmat al-Rawashdeh, an Islamist lawyer, also said torture was used to force the defendants to confess to charges of planning to attack liquor stores, nightclubs and Americans frequenting five-star hotels in the kingdom.
"The defendants wished to kill Jews and Americans, just like most Jordanians would like to kill Jews and Americans. In fact I'm one of them, and nobody should be punished because of this wishful thinking," al-Rawashdeh told the three-judge State Security Court.
"If so, you'd have to punish all Jordanians. I ask God to help me fight Jews and Americans and obtain martyrdom," he said in his closing
The hearing was adjourned to an unspecified date for the verdict.
The prosecution had earlier put forward witnesses who confirmed details from the indictment sheet.
The six men - including two fugitives - are charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, which is punishable by up to 15 years in jail.
Their alleged plot was foiled when four members of the group - comprising mainly young Palestinians aged between 23 and 26 - were arrested on Sept. 28, 2005, in Jordan. Two fugitives are Palestinians believed to be in Lebanon.
The indictment said prime suspect Loa'i Hashem al-Sharif, a native of Hebron, West Bank, was leader of the previously unknown "Khattab Brigades" militant group. He was allegedly responsible for recruiting fighters and raising funds to buy machine guns.
The targets included unidentified American nationals frequenting five-star hotels in Amman and the Red Sea resort city of Aqaba, 350 kilometers (210 miles) south of the Jordanian capital, the indictment said. Aqaba is adjacent to an Israeli resort and is one of the destinations U.S. military officials on duty in Iraq visit when on short respite from the war-ravaged country.
The indictment said cell members received weapons training in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon from the two fugitives, identified as Osama al-Shihabi and Haitham al-Saadi.
The cell allegedly began surveying its targets in Jordan, including nightclubs and liquor stores in Amman, early last year. Initially, the alleged militants sought to spray cyanide on the doorknobs of nightclubs to poison the customers, but could not buy the deadly chemical without a license.
They later switched to the idea of using automatic machine guns to gun down people visiting unidentified liquor shops and nightclubs. |
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