Phone ‘threats’ under scrutiny as Abu Qatada trial continues

AMMAN — The State Security Court heard the testimony of two audio recording experts as the defence team of Mahmoud Othman, or Abu Qatada, challenged the credibility of alleged phone threats made by the cleric while residing in the UK.

In a session early Thursday, the State Security Court heard the statements of an expert explaining the “ease” with which a voice can be artificially reconstructed from previous recordings.

The defence team’s second witness, a researcher on memories and audio recollection, told the court that over a 16-year-span an individual is 15 per cent likely to correctly recall and identify the voice of a particular person.

The statements came as Abu Qatada’s defence team attempted to deconstruct an audio recording of alleged telephone conversations between him and an unidentified Jordanian in which the cleric allegedly encouraged and supported the carrying out of militant attacks on Jordanian soil.

The Bethlehem-born cleric’s defence team, headed by Ghazi Theinabat, argues that Jordanian or British intelligence agents contacted Othman posing as long-lost acquaintances in a bid to extract an incriminating statement from him — rendering the evidence “tainted”.

The court, presided over by Judge Ahmad Al Qatarneh, moved to resume hearing defence witnesses on May 8.

Abu Qatada faces a life sentence with hard labour if convicted of plotting a series of attacks in Amman, including on the American School and a former intelligence chief.

The British government deported Abu Qatada, a Jordanian national and an influential scholar within the hard-line Salafist movement, to the Kingdom in August 2013 despite concerns by an EU human rights court that he might face torture or fail to receive a fair trial.

Despite entering a brief hunger strike in protest over access to wider prison facilities, the cleric has largely been “treated well” during his detention and has not suffered duress or torture, according to his family and defence attorney.