Failed suicide bomber sentenced to death

A Jordanian military court sentenced to death yesterday an Iraqi woman who tried to carry out a suicide bombing and six other people for planning attacks which killed 60 people in Amman last year.

Sajida al-Rishawi, the only defendant in custody, and the others who were tried in absentia were found guilty of conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts causing death and destruction, and illegal possession of weapons and explosives.

The simultaneous bombings of three hotels in the Jordanian capital in November were claimed by al Qaeda's leader in Iraq at that time, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Rishawi, from the western Iraqi town of Ramadi, wore a Muslim headscarf and a blue prison gown in court and showed little emotion when the sentence was passed.

"She expected either the death sentence or to be sent back to Iraq," said her lawyer Hussein al-Masri, who added she had not helped him gather information to help her defence.

"She refused to give me her family address in Iraq because she did not want them to be harmed. So neither her family nor the party that sent her helped us present any evidence that might help her case."

Dr Masri added that he would appeal against the verdict.

Charges against Zarqawi, originally charged in the case, were dropped after he was killed in Iraq in June.

Death sentences in Jordan are carried out by hanging. At least two militants were executed this year for the murder of a US diplomat although it is more common for security prisoners to have their death sentences commuted to life terms.

Prosecutors said Rishawi tried to blow herself up with her suicide bomber husband, who struck at the Radisson hotel during a wedding reception on Nov. 9, 2005. Two other hotels - the Hyatt and Days Inn - were targeted in simultaneous attacks.

Jordanian officials identified her as a sister of Samir Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, a former Zarqawi aide who was killed by US forces in Iraq.

Ms Rishawi made a televised confession a few days after the blasts, describing her attempts to detonate an explosives-laden belt. But in court she pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Dr Masri said earlier this year that Ms Rishawi told him her confessions were extracted under torture, but that he had no proof of this.