JORDAN COMMUTES EIGHT AL-QAEDA DEATH VERDICTS TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT

Jordan's State Security Court (SSC) commuted the death penalty passed on eight al-Qaeda-linked suspects to life imprisonment, judicial sources said. In April 2006, the SSC sentenced to death nine defendants after finding them guilty of plotting a chemical attack on the premises of the General Intelligence Department, the Prime Ministry and the US embassy in Amman. One of the then leader of Iraq’s al-Qaeda branch Abu Mussab al-Zarqawi's aides, Azmi Jayyouci, and four other suspects were arrested in 2004 and condemned to death by the SSC. The verdicts were overturned in May 2007 by the Court of Cassation, the country's highest appellate court, which cited "invalid interrogation procedures". "The SSC decided to commute the verdicts after amending the Weapons and Ammunition Law which implied a reduction of the penalty from death to life imprisonment," judicial sources said.