Members of Al-Qa’ida are standing trial on Monday for their involvement in terror attacks committed in Jordan last year, reports the Jordanian daily A-Dustour.
The most well-known of the eleven who are standing trial, is leader of Al-Qa’ida in Iraq, Abu Mu’s’ab A-Zarqawi. A-Zarqawi, who is responsible for multiple terror attacks in Iraq, will be sentenced in absentia with six other members of the organization.
The Al-Qa’ida leader was already tried in absentia and sentenced to death by a Jordanian court in 2004, for his direct involvement in the murder of Laurence M. Foley, the director of the US Agency for International Development programs in Jordan.
Also on trial is Sajida A-Rishawi, a 35-year-old Iraqi woman, who participated in an attack on a hotel in Jordan’s capital Amman. A-Rishawi failed to detonate the explosive belt she carried and was arrested by the Jordanian security forces. Three other members of A-Rishawi’s cell are accused of plotting to commit a terror attack, and of illegally possessing explosives.