Jordan's state security court on Monday sentenced fugitive Palestinian extremist Abu Nidal to death for the murder of a Jordanian diplomat in 1994.
Nidal, a member of the Fateh Revolutionary Council, was sentenced in absentia to death by hanging.
Four other accomplices, only one of whom was in court Monday, were also sentenced to death by hanging for the murder of Naeb Omran Ma'ayteh, a former first secretary at the Jordanian embassy in Beirut.
Abu Nidal, whose real name is Sabri Al Banna, was accused along with his four accomplices of "conspiracy to carry out a terrorist activity that led to the death of an individual as well as membership in an illegal group," the outlawed Fateh Revolutionary Council, a statement by the court read to reporters said.
The head of the tribunal, Colonel Tayel Raggad, adjourned the first session on June 13 to give the defendant ample time to appoint a lawyer.
According to the indictment sheet, Abu Shennar, nicknamed Thaer Mohammad Ali, is accused of shooting Maaytah dead at close range on Jan. 29, 1994.
The gunman, armed with a nine-millimeter pistol, approached Maaytah's vehicle and fired at least seven bullets through the driver's window. Most of them pierced Maaytah's head and neck, causing his immediate death.
The assailant and another accomplice fled the scene. The attack happened only months before Jordan and Israel signed a historic peace treaty.
Abu Shennar, 30, was arrested on March 1, 2000. According to news agencies, he pleaded not guilty.
The other alleged accomplices reside either in Libya or the Palestinian self-rule areas, and according to the prosecutor they are Eghab Nemr Suleiman Fuqaha, 32, Ehsan Sadeq Radwan, 45, and Jamal Darwish Fatayer, 36.
Abu Nidal, 63, sentenced to death by the PLO, is said to be residing in Iraq.
The Abu Nidal group is accused of assassinating or kidnapping several Jordanian diplomats in the 1980s and early 1990s, especially in the Lebanese arena in the throes of the 1975-1990 civil war.
In 1984, Jordan's ambassador in Bucharest, Azmi Mufti, was killed. The ambassador to India Mohammad Ali Khorma was wounded in a similar incident.
Prosecutor Lt. Col. Mahmoud Obeidat recalled that the Lebanese authorities had rounded up many Revolutionary Council members in the wake of Maaytah's assassination. The crackdown prompted Abu Nidal to ask his followers to flee Lebanon to either Turkey or Sudan, the prosecutor noted.
The convicts in this case belong to the “Special Missions Committee,” an arm of the Revolutionary Command Council, which plotted in the 1980s against countries deemed “enemy states,” including Jordan – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
