Two students receive 15 years jail for terror plot

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has upheld a February State Security Court (SSC) ruling sentencing two university students to 15 years in prison each after convicting them of plotting subversive acts in the Kingdom in early 2018.

The SSC also declared the defendants guilty of promoting terrorist groups (Daesh) and handed them the maximum punishment for the charges.

Court documents said the defendants became friends while studying at a local university and decided to adopt the ideologies of the Daesh terror group in early 2017 “and to apply Sharia [Islamic law] in Jordan”.

“The two young men used social media to promote Daesh ideologies and recruit more people to join them,” according to court transcripts.

The two men decided to carry out terrorist attacks inside the Kingdom and plotted to rob certain places to “support their future terror activities that were to be carried out in 2018,” court documents added.

The two defendants also listed vital institutions such as General Intelligence Department (GID) buildings in several governorates and abducting and killing SSC and GID officials, court papers said.

The two defendants were arrested in January 2018 by security forces “before being able to carry out any of their plans”, court papers said.

The defendants contested the SSC’s ruling charging that “they were subjected to torture and duress by the
security forces”. 

Meanwhile, the higher court ruled that the SSC followed the proper procedures when issuing a new sentence against the defendants. 
The Cassation Court bench is comprised of judges Mohammad Ibrahim, Naji Zu'bi, Yassin Abdullat, Nayef Samarat and Saeed Mugheid.