Palestinian renegade Sabri Banna (better known by his nom de guerre Abu Nidal) was tried in absentia on Tuesday by a Jordanian security court, along with four of his followers, for the 1994 assassination in Beirut of Jordanian diplomat Nayeb Imran Maaytah, reported the Jordan Times newspaper.
Abu Nidal and three of his alleged accomplices are still fugitives, while the prime suspect, Yasser Mohammad Salameh Abu Shennar, who allegedly killed the embassy's first secretary, appeared in court.
The defendants all belong to Fateh's Revolutionary Command, an outlawed group that broke away from the mainstream PLO faction led by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
The head of the tribunal, Colonel Tayel Raggad, adjourned the first session of the high-profile case until June 18, 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, said the paper.
The indictment includes two counts: Conspiracy to carry out terrorist acts that led to the killing of a human being, and belonging to an illegal organization.
The first charge is punishable by death.
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 defendants 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)
