Man sentenced to 5 years in prison for Syrian jihadist ties

AMMAN — The State Security Court sentenced on Monday a citizen to five years in prison for alleged ties to Syrian jihadist groups, the latest in a series of prison sentences for Jordanians accused of supporting armed Islamist factions in the country.

In a decision early Monday, the court handed down the sentence to Khalaq Abu Snayneh for “joining militant Islamist groups” including Jabhat Al Nusra, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

In the charge sheet, the court accused the 25-year-old Zarqa resident of providing “weapons training” to fellow Islamist fighters while in Syria between January and June 2013.

Abu Snayneh, a veteran member of the hard-line Jordanian Jihadi Salafist movement, marks the 16th citizen to receive a prison sentence for alleged ties to Syrian jihadists over the past five months. 

In a separate court session on Monday, Majdi Abu Nijm pleaded  not guilty to charges of “joining armed groups in Syria”.

In a session presided by Judge Ahmed Tarawneh, the 28-year-old Nijm denied joining the ranks of Islamist militants during a seven-month stay in Syria in 2013. 

Nijm, also known as “Abu Maria”, is known as a leading theologian among the Jordanian Salafist movement and reportedly served as a Sharia judge and cleric for the Syrian Islamic Liberation Front, one of several Islamist groups currently battling the formerly Al Qaeda-aligned Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), between March and October 2013.

If convicted, the Amman resident faces a five-year prison term.

The soft-spoken Nijm remained silent for the majority of the court session, speaking up only to enter his plea and later to criticise Islamist groups which have turned their arms onto former ally ISIL. 

“Anyone who rejects the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant rejects the establishment of an Islamic state… no true Muslim turns his gun on mujahideen!” Nijm declared as he was escorted out of the courtroom. 

Meanwhile, the court heard on Monday the latest defence witness in the ongoing trial of 11 young Jordanians charged with plotting a series of terrorist attacks targeting several Western diplomatic missions and shopping centres in Amman in 2012. 

The court heard the testimony of Abdul Latif Abdul Rahman, a 66-year-old Ruseifa resident and former landlord of Nidal Al Manaa, brother of Mahmoud Al Manaa, one of the defendants.

In his testimony, Abdul Rahman denied ever meeting or encountering Mahmoud at his rented Ruseifa flat, which was raided by police in October 2012.

Abdul Rahman confirmed that Nidal had rented the apartment for a period of six days prior to the raid, which yielded dozens of semi-automatic weapons and ammunition caches according to the charge sheet.

During the session, defence attorney Taher Nassar attempted to establish that Mahmoud had never entered his brother’s apartment, and that  “no one could have transferred such a large weapons stash” to the apartment during the first six days of Nidal’s stay in the flat.

Adjourning the session, the court agreed to resume hearing witness testimonies on March 24. 

Nidal is one of 11 defendants authorities arrested in October 2012 on charges of attempting to carry out terrorist attacks on Jordanian soil.

The defendants are accused of having ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq, now known as the ISIL, and of travelling to Syria to receive funding and training to target various sites across Amman.

In the initial charge sheet, security officials said the 11 men had received explosives and rockets from Syria to carry out the alleged attack, which was to coincide with the anniversary of the November 9, 2005 Amman hotel bombings.

The defendants, all between the ages of 19 and 22, deny any affiliation to Al Qaeda or other Islamist movements. 

According to family members, the accused had no prior connections to each other prior to their arrest.