Jordan convicts 3 Hamas operatives

3 convicted of monitoring Israeli embassy in Amman, military sites on borders with Israel and Syria.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Jordanian policeman 248 88 (photo credit: AP [file])
Jordanian policeman 248 88
(photo credit: AP [file])
A Jordanian court has convicted three Hamas men for operating in the country. The three were convicted Wednesday of receiving information from their group that could jeopardize the kingdom's safety and with monitoring the Israeli embassy in Amman, and military sites on the borders with Israel and Syria. The men were sentenced to five years in prison. The military judge initially sentenced the men to 10 years, but reduced the sentence to five years. Two other defendants were acquitted for lack of evidence. The military prosecutor said at the opening of their trial last year that Hamas provided the operatives with military training in an unnamed neighboring country. In a text message, a Hamas spokesman said the movement hopes that the judgments issued in Jordan are "the beginning of the end of the legal case, and that an amnesty will be granted to the detainees." "We hope to develop our relations with Jordan," the spokesman, who was not identified, said. Last year, a Jordanian military court sentenced three Hamas members to sentences ranging from 7½ to 15 years in prison for allegedly plotting attacks on Israelis and intelligence officers in Jordan. But Jordan's highest court later reduced the sentence to half the term saying the military court that handed down the initial sentences failed to take into account that the three Jordanians did not carry out any attacks. Hamas denied the accusations against the men, saying it does not target Jordan or any Arab country.