Terrorist jailed for 7 years as court toughens punishment

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) on Tuesday handed a seven-year jail sentence to a man who threatened a bomb attack against the Queen Alia International Airport and to kill thousands of Jordanians to avenge for "jihadists" in Syria.

In a related development, the SSC has started to issue stiffer penalties against terror convicts as part of measures to fight extremism and terrorism.

The 21-year-old convict was charged with threatening to conduct terrorist acts in violation of the Anti-Terrorism Law, while the SSC found him not guilty on charges of providing false information on an act of terror, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

According to the charge list, the convict sent last August an SMS to the airport helpdesk, penetrated the website of the airport and sent a threat to attack the airport and kill thousands of Jordanians to avenge for “jihadists” in Syria, in response to Jordan’s participation in an international coalition to fight the Daesh terror group.

He was also indicted of providing false information of having a bomb on an airplane and threatening to kill three airport employees.

Meanwhile, the SSC has started to issue maximum sentences against those found guilty of supporting or promoting the ideologies of Daesh and Jabhat Al Nusra terror groups of up  to 10-year imprisonment with hard labour.

The SSC’s new approach also applies to all those who fought with these terror groups. Charges over the past three years used to reach a maximum of five years with hard labour, Petra reported. 

The decision to raise the sentence came in line with SSC’s legal measures to combat terrorism and extremist ideologies that Jordan seeks to uproot.