Al-Rai (الرآي) , Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan
Jordanian Intelligence foils
a terrorist act targeting the Armenian Church and a commercial store
المخابرات تحبط عملاً إرهابياً
لاستهداف كنيسة ومحل تجاري
[Translated from Arabic exclusively for the Armenian News
Network Armenian News by Katia M. Peltekian]
AMMAN – Ghazi Al-Mirayat.
The General Intelligence forces foiled a terrorist attack by
four suspects who had planned to target a church and a commercial store in
Amman and arrested them earlier this year. The attack was planned to show
support to the ISIS terrorist group.
The four defendants attempted to join the terrorist
organization by crossing the Jordanian border, but the tight security measures
along the Jordanian borders prevented them from sneaking out of the country. Thus,
they planned to carry out armed operations on the Jordanian territories.
For their plans, the four chose to carry out the terrorist
act with explosives and decided to blow up a church and a liquor store (a store
that sells alcoholic drinks). But because they found difficulty in manufacturing
explosive devices, they changed their plans to using automatic assault weapons.
The State Security Court held a public session headed by Military
Judge Brigadier Dr. Ali al-Mobaideen to look into the case. When the defendants
were asked how they would plead to the charges brought against them by the
State Prosecution, they responded that they were not guilty. Three of the defendants
are also facing charges of promoting the ideology of a terrorist group.
The details of the case, as stated in the indictment, reveal
that all the defendants are residents of the Al-Wehdat area in Amman, and they are
friends. Following the events in Syrian and Iraq, and the emergence of the ISIS
terrorist organization in 2014, the defendants began following the news and
reports on ISIS via the Internet and shared these contents with each other
until they became convinced that ISIS is the “true” organization that seeks to
implement Islamic Law. They soon pledged their allegiance to ISIS to obey its
teachings.
And because the defendants saw it necessary to support the
organization, they agreed in 2017 to join the ranks of the fighters and fight
for the organization. However, they were unable to do so due to the tight
security measures along Jordan’s borders.
By the beginning of 2018, as a result of the defendants'
inability to join the organization and fight with its elements in Syria, two of
the 4 suspects decided to carry out an armed operation inside Jordan to show
their support to ISIS. After they identified a few targets, they settled on two
specific ones: the Armenian [Apostolic] Church in the Achrafieh neighborhood of
Amman, and a liquor store in Al-Wahdat only by virtue of their proximity to
their place of residence.
The two main suspects then decided to form two separate
cells to carry out the terrorist. It was planned that the first cell would
include themselves and one of the other suspects to attack the liquor store in
Al-Wahdat. The second cell would include the original two and the fourth
suspect to carry out a terrorist attack on the Armenian Church.
In March of 2018, one of the suspects was arrested and referred
to the State Security Court for the crime of promoting the ideologies of a
terrorist group. He was sentences to 5 years in prison. However, this did not deter
the remaining three as they continued to formulate the right time and place to carry
out their terrorist attack. However, by the end of the year, another one of the
group was also arrested, thus exposing the two remaining suspects who were
also arrested last January.
The
original in Arabic: http://alrai.com/article/10542479/%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA/%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%85%D8%AE%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D8%AA%D8%AD%D8%A8%D8%B7-%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D8%A7-%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%87%D8%A7%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%87%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%81-%D9%83%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%A9-%D9%88%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%84-%D8%AA%D8%AC%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A?fbclid=IwAR0AM2K_OdXoC7RK2N0ayBEWXybr2iuwUaiHI6Hjt4N_tm3kpX03JZOjaXY