Jordan orders retrial in case against al-Qaida

Jordan's appeals court has ordered a retrial in the case of 12 al-Qaida-linked militants allegedly involved in a chemical attack plot, a judiciary official said Monday. In a separate case, the same court upheld the death penalty for a Jordanian man of Palestinian origin who was convicted last December of the fatal shooting of a British tourist he saw as an enemy of Islam. In the first case, the appeals court ruled that the original prosecutor was one of the defendants' targets, and his involvement in the trial had harmed the integrity of the court, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the press. "If the prosecutor is an adversary, he is not fit to take part in the hearing and all the hearings are considered void and the documents of the trial will be sent back to the State Security Court," according to the court ruling, which occurred in late April. The military court is now required to retry the defendants.