US embassy cable - 05AMMAN807

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 000807 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/01/2015 
TAGS: PTER, ASEC, IZ, JO 
SUBJECT: SUSPECT IN FOLEY ASSASSINATION TO BE RE-TRIED; 
JORDANIANS CONVICTED FOR TARGETING DIPLOMATS 
 
REF: A. 04 AMMAN 6212 
 
     B. AMMAN 345 
     C. 04 AMMAN 7733 
     D. 04 AMMAN 7960 
 
Classified By: CDA David Hale for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1.  (U)  The State Security Court is set to proceed in the 
coming days with two high-profile cases linked to fugitive 
Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, including the 
re-trial of a suspect accused of involvement in the murder of 
USAID official Laurence Foley.  The court also convicted two 
men for plotting against foreign diplomats in Amman, 
sentencing them to two and one-half years' imprisonment.  End 
Summary. 
 
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SUSPECT IN FOLEY KILLING TO BE RE-TRIED 
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2.  (U)  According to January 31 press reports, the re-trial 
of Muammar Ahmad Yusif al-Jaghbir, sentenced to death in 
absentia in April 2004 for his role in the October 2002 
assassination of USAID official Laurence Foley, is slated to 
begin later this month in Jordan's State Security Court. 
Jordanian authorities announced in July 2004 that Jaghbir had 
been arrested in Iraq and transferred to Jordan (ref A). 
Jordanian law requires that he be re-tried now that he is in 
Jordanian custody.  The prosecution charged that wanted 
Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (also convicted in 
absentia in April 2004 for Foley's murder) gave Jaghbir 
$44,000 to distribute for attacks in Jordan. 
 
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JAYUSI CELL MEMBERS GET NEW LAWYERS; TRIAL DATE SET 
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3.  (U)  The State Security Court announced that the trial of 
nine alleged Zarqawi affiliates accused of plotting to bomb 
the U.S. embassy and Jordanian government targets will begin 
on February 2, now that the Jordanian Bar Association has 
assigned lawyers to the case after the defendants had 
rejected their court-appointed attorneys in December (ref B). 
 The Bar Association president told the press on January 26 
that the association had named five lawyers to represent the 
defendants, but would wait until the trial convened to 
announce their names.  Zarqawi and three others are being 
tried in absentia. 
 
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TWO SENTENCED FOR TARGETING DIPLOMATS 
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4.  (U)  In one of the few cases unrelated to Zarqawi's 
network, the State Security Court on January 31 convicted two 
men for plotting attacks against foreign diplomats in Amman 
in 2004 (refs C and D).  The court sentenced Abd al-Hamid 
Izzat Mahmud Yasin and Khalid Abd al-Rahman Muhammad Jubran 
to five-year prison terms, but immediately commuted the 
sentences to two and one-half years in jail "because of the 
circumstances of the case and to give the defendants a second 
chance in life."  The prosecution charged: "Izzat collected 
information on diplomats working in the French, Chinese, U.S. 
and Turkish embassies, by photocopying their (tax) exemption 
cards when they bought merchandise at the shop (where he 
worked)," according to press.   The two men, who met in a 
local mosque and shared jihadist leanings, allegedly 
discussed with each other how they might buy machine guns for 
attacks on diplomats but were arrested in May 2004 before 
obtaining any weapons. 
 
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COMMENT 
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5.  (C)  The Security Court has been known to commute 
sentences in cases where the defendants were first-time 
offenders and previously unknown to the security services, as 
was the case with Yasin and Jubran.  The fact that they had 
not acted on their plans beyond collecting information, and 
appear to have had no connections to other terrorists, also 
probably factored into the Court's decision to reduce their 
sentences. 
 
6.  (U)  Baghdad minimize considered. 
 
Please visit Embassy Amman's classified web site at 
http://www.state.sgov/p/nea/amman/ or access the site through 
the Department of State's SIPRNET home page. 
HALE