Jordan's military prosecutor indicted 13 alleged Muslim militants yesterday, including fugitive Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi, for an al-Qaeda linked plot to attack targets in Jordan with chemical and conventional weapons, government officials said yesterday.
Lieutenant Colonel Mahmoud Obeidat summoned the nine terror suspects who are in custody and read them the charges listed in the indictment, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
They said the four at large, including al-Zarqawi, were also charged and would be tried in absentia. The trial was expected to begin next month.
Al-Zarqawi, the best-known figure indicted, is thought to be directing anti-US attacks and kidnappings in Iraq, where he leads the Tawhid and Jihad group.
Security officials have said the plot targeted the Jordanian prime minister's office, the secret service agency, the US Embassy in Jordan and other sites.
Azmi al-Jayousi, the alleged mastermind of the cell who was captured in April, has confessed to military prosecutors plans for a chemical attack, the officials said.
The military court is expected to issue a 10-day grace period this week for the four fugitives to surrender to authorities -- a process which precedes the opening of the trial. In Jordan, charges become formal when read aloud at the opening of the trial.
The charges on seven counts include conspiring to commit terror attacks in Jordan, possessing and manufacturing explosive material and affiliation with a banned group, the officials added. The group in question has been identified as Kata'eb al-Tawhid (Battalions of Monotheism), a previously unknown group said to be linked to al-Qaeda. If convicted on all counts, defendants could be sentenced to death.
Security officials and, in televised confessions some of the detained suspects themselves, have said the plot was linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Besides the 13 suspects, four were killed in a police shootout on April 20, when the terror plot was uncovered and foiled with most members of the Jordanian cell arrested.
Jordan announced in April it had foiled a terrorist plot blamed on al-Zarqawi.
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