UJ students demand release of jailed terror convict

AMMAN — Dozens of students held a protest in front of the University of Jordan on Sunday to demand the release of a peer recently imprisoned on terror charges.

In a one-hour rally in front of the university’s main gates, some 50 students protested over last week’s sentencing of Mohammad Khater, a 21-year-old former fine arts student to a 10 year prison term on terror charges, calling on authorities to release the Ruseifa resident.

The protesting students — the bulk of whom are activists with the Islamist movement — called for the abolishment of the military State Security Court (SSC), chanting “No military courts for civilians”.

Raed Khater, Mohammad’s father, said the rally was the first of a series of planned protests to pressure authorities to overturn last week’s sentence.

The SSC sentenced Khater along with 10 other young Jordanians on Wednesday for their involvement in the so-called 9/11 terror plot, a series of planned Al Qaeda attacks targeting Western diplomatic missions and shopping centres in the capital.

Three of the men received between 15 and 20 years in prison for their involvement in the foiled attacks, which according to their charge sheet was organised through Al Qaeda in Iraq, now the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, while Khater and five others received 10-year prison terms.

Two others were sentenced to four years in prison for their involvement in the planned attacks, which were to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the November 9, 2005, Amman triple hotel bombings. 

The 11, who had no known prior ties to Islamist groups or Al Qaeda, had pleaded not guilty.

Also on Sunday, the SSC released Muslim Brotherhood activist Adnan Abu Arqub following a 15-day detention, according to defence attorney Abdul Qader Khatib.

Abu Arqub, an active member of the Brotherhood movement, was arrested late last month on charges of “undermining the state” for alleged comments made during a pro-reform rally in April. 

He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted, according to the Penal Code.