Jordan speeding trial for alleged killer of British tourist

Jordan is speeding up procedures to bring to trial the man charged with the shooting death of a British tourist and the wounding of six others at a popular Roman ruin in the capital, Amman, judicial officials said Sunday.

Nabeel Ahmed Issa Jaourah, 38, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, has been charged with carrying out terrorist attacks, causing the death of one person, and possessing an armed weapon without a license, according to a draft military prosecution indictment. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.

Two judicial officials said the Palestinian refugee who acquired Jordanian citizenship will go on trial in the military State Security Court soon, but that no date has yet been fixed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

The process of investigation and putting the accused on trial was sped up to underscore the government's resolve to clamp down on criminal activities against foreigners. Similar criminal cases, even terror plots, have taken several months before the accused appeared in court.

Tourism brought Jordan nearly $1 billion in revenue during 2005.An estimated 400,000 foreigners, including Egyptian and Iraqi workers, reside in the kingdom, according to Jordan's statistics department.

Jaourah was witnessed spraying foreign tourists visitors with bullets at downtown Amman's famed Roman Amphitheater on September 4. He was quickly overpowered and arrested. He later told his interrogators that he wanted to avenge his two brothers killed in an Israeli raid on Lebanon in 1982, but that he waited more than 20 years because he wanted his five children to grow up.

Jaourah struck despite heavy security in this key U.S. Mideast ally. The incident was the first major terror assault since triple hotel suicide blasts last November claimed by Al Qaida in Iraq that killed 63 people, including three Iraqi bombers.

Jordan said Jaourah's attack was an "individual act" and that the gunman had "no links with domestic or foreign" terror networks.

Still, the draft prosecution indictment said that Jaourah was introduced a decade ago to an Egyptian man identified as Ismail, who persuaded him that "it was necessary to pray and wage jihad (holy war)."

From that moment, Jaourah plotted to "kill foreigners in retaliation for the deaths of his two brothers during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the 1980's," said the sheet obtained from one of the two officials.

"He considered carrying out an operation against foreign guests in Jordan because tourists visit the country and foreigners kill Muslims," according to the draft, approved by the country's top military prosecutor.

Jaourah bought a Spanish-made revolver and trained to use it "waiting for a suitable time to kill tourists." It said he kept the pistol at his home without obtaining a license.

Days before the actual shooting incident, he went to central Amman to survey the area, but felt "there were too many people around to carry out his plot."

The "Israeli aggression against Lebanon in August" spurred him to act on his planned shooting, the indictment added. On the day of the attack, Jaourah, a welder, bid his wife and five children farewell at their modest home just northeast of the Jordanian capital. Armed with a loaded gun and spare bullets, he went to downtown Amman.

Jaourah had his beard shaved at a barber shop before entering the amphitheater complex. "He waited for an hour until tour groups arrived. He watched them for another hour and when he saw one of the groups was about to leave, he went two meters (yards) behind them and opened fire at their backs, targeting the area behind their hearts and lungs with the aim to kill them," the sheet said.

Jaourah killed British tourist Christopher Stokes and wounded five other Westerners, plus a Jordanian tourist police.

"He continued firing until he ran out of ammunition," the indictment added.