Jihadist ringleader, five others sentenced to life for truck-bombing plot

AMMAN — The State Security Court sentenced on Wednesday the ringleader of a jihadist group and five others to life in prison for an alleged terror plot targeting a series of sites including the General Intelligence Department (GID) headquarters.

In a 128-page decision issued on Wednesday, the tribunal sentenced Kataeb Al Tawheed (battalions of monotheism) leader Azmi Al Jayousi and five other citizens to life with hard labour for “conspiracy to commit terrorist acts” and the “illegal possession of explosives and automatic weapons” as part of a foiled terror plot in 2005. 

In the decision, handed down in a session presided over by Judge Ahmed Tarawneh, the court also sentenced two co-conspirators to 15 years in prison for their role in the scheme, which targeted a series of Western diplomatic missions and the GID headquarters, according to the charge sheet.

The court documents said the convicts collected various chemicals and explosive materials over a year-and-a-half period in a bid to produce over 20 tonnes of explosives to carry out a planned truck bombing of the GID headquarters in west Amman.

According to expert witness testimony quoted in the court decision, the group had produced enough explosives to “completely destroy” the intelligence headquarters and all surrounding buildings in a four-kilometre radius.

The court alleged that the accused, all members of Al Qaeda-linked group, received support and direction from former Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Mussab 

Zarqawi, the mastermind of the 2005 Amman hotel bombings and several foiled terror plots targeting Jordan.

Jayousi, a former prominent figure in the hard-line Jihadi Salafist movement, was an alleged expert in explosives due to his time as a fighter in Afghanistan, according to Islamist sources.