Jordan’s security agents have arrested 13 Islamists, including an Egyptian, for allegedly plotting to carry out terrorist acts against Israeli and Western targets in the kingdom, reported the Jordan Times newspaper on Monday.
A source said the `Cells Organization' was “aborted'' in January before its members could enact their plans.
He said prosecutor Lt. Colonel Mahmoud Obeidat was nearing the end of two months of interrogation in preparation of an indictment against the defendants for mid-May.
In the coming months, the alleged terrorists could face trial before the State Security Court, a tribunal formed by one civil and two military magistrates.
The prosecutor charged the group's members on four counts: Membership in an illegal organization, conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks, possession of explosives without license for illegal purposes and preparing explosive devices without license, said the paper.
The last three charges could entail the death penalty if proven at the court proceedings.
The authorities apprehended some of the suspects with “home-made primitive explosives,'' according to the source who gave no further details.
According to the same sources, all members of the “Cells Organization'' have no criminal records and none is an active member of the licensed Muslim Brotherhood, the most influential group on the local political arena.
Throughout the 1990s, the authorities dismantled nearly 10 Islamist organizations, some linked to the fundamentalist group of Saudi dissident Osama Ben Laden.
The last of those groups was “Al-Qaedah'' in which 28 men were tried last September.
Six of the suspects were sentenced to death by the security court, after being convicted of plotting to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli and US targets during millennium festivities – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
