Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Media: AFP
Byline: n/a
Date: 31 August 2006
AMMAN - An Iraqi suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda on Thursday refused a
court-appointed lawyer at the start of his trial in Jordan on charges of
murder and plotting "terrorist" acts.
Ziad Khalaf al-Karbuli also disputed assertions by the authorities that he
was spirited out of Iraq by Jordanian army and intelligence forces on May 10
saying he had been "abducted from Lebanon on May 6", an AFP correspondent
said.
The court postponed the trial to Wednesday, when charges will be formally
read out against Karbuli in the presence of a court-appointed lawyer.
Karbuli, 23, and 13 other Iraqi fugitives were indicted in July on charges
of "carrying out terrorist acts that led to the death of an individual",
namely a Jordanian truck driver, as well as "membership in an illegal
organisation" and possessions of weapons and explosives.
After his arrest in May, Karbuli confessed on state television that he shot
truck driver Khalid Dassuki in September, and abducted two Moroccans and an
Iraqi civil servant separately, all in Iraq.
Jordanian officials have described Karbuli as a top Al-Qaeda operative who
worked as a customs employee on the Iraqi border and said he was nabbed in a
joint operation by army special forces and intelligence agents.
But Karbuli denied this.
"I am telling you, I was not arrested on May 10. They abducted me in Lebanon
on May 6," he told the court, adding that his 13 co-defendants "are
mujahedeen (rebels) in Iraq".
He also vowed that "those who blaspheme will die" and dismissed a possible
death penalty by saying "execution is for the sake of God".
Karbuli said he was being mistreated at the Juweideh detention center where
he is being held and accused the director of refusing to let him get in
touch with family in Iraq and in Jordan.
"I don't have money to appoint a lawyer and the prison director is
preventing me from getting in touch with my family in Iraq and my uncle" who
works in a Jordanian unversity, he said.
He also claimed he had started a hunger strike before being brought to
court.
Byline: n/a
Date: 31 August 2006
AMMAN - An Iraqi suspected of belonging to Al-Qaeda on Thursday refused a
court-appointed lawyer at the start of his trial in Jordan on charges of
murder and plotting "terrorist" acts.
Ziad Khalaf al-Karbuli also disputed assertions by the authorities that he
was spirited out of Iraq by Jordanian army and intelligence forces on May 10
saying he had been "abducted from Lebanon on May 6", an AFP correspondent
said.
The court postponed the trial to Wednesday, when charges will be formally
read out against Karbuli in the presence of a court-appointed lawyer.
Karbuli, 23, and 13 other Iraqi fugitives were indicted in July on charges
of "carrying out terrorist acts that led to the death of an individual",
namely a Jordanian truck driver, as well as "membership in an illegal
organisation" and possessions of weapons and explosives.
After his arrest in May, Karbuli confessed on state television that he shot
truck driver Khalid Dassuki in September, and abducted two Moroccans and an
Iraqi civil servant separately, all in Iraq.
Jordanian officials have described Karbuli as a top Al-Qaeda operative who
worked as a customs employee on the Iraqi border and said he was nabbed in a
joint operation by army special forces and intelligence agents.
But Karbuli denied this.
"I am telling you, I was not arrested on May 10. They abducted me in Lebanon
on May 6," he told the court, adding that his 13 co-defendants "are
mujahedeen (rebels) in Iraq".
He also vowed that "those who blaspheme will die" and dismissed a possible
death penalty by saying "execution is for the sake of God".
Karbuli said he was being mistreated at the Juweideh detention center where
he is being held and accused the director of refusing to let him get in
touch with family in Iraq and in Jordan.
"I don't have money to appoint a lawyer and the prison director is
preventing me from getting in touch with my family in Iraq and my uncle" who
works in a Jordanian unversity, he said.
He also claimed he had started a hunger strike before being brought to
court.