Ammon News - AMMAN - A military tribunal on Monday sentenced to death a Jordanian linked to Al-Qaeda over the 2002 murder of an American diplomat in Amman, a judicial official said.

Jordan's state security court condemned Moamar al-Jaghbir to death by hanging after a third re-trial for his role in the assassination of US diplomat Laurence Foley, the official told AFP.

He was charged with "carrying out terrorist activity aimed at killing an individual" — which carries the death sentence, he added.

In 2007, the same court sentenced Jaghbir, who is already on death row for another conviction, to 10 years in prison with hard labour in connection with the murder.

But the appeals court demanded a new trial, arguing that the military tribunal had not heard all the evidence against Jaghbir.

His lawyer Fathi Daradkeh said he plans to appeal the verdict next week.

Jaghbir, who stood silent as he heard the ruling amid tight security, was first sentenced to death in absentia in 2004 for Foley's murder, along with seven others including slain Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

But in line with Jordanian law, Jaghbir underwent a second trial after he was arrested in Iraq by US forces and handed over to Jordan in 2004.

A Jordanian and a Libyan convicted with him in 2004 were executed in March 2006.
Jaghbir has also been tried separately for the deadly bombing of Jordan's embassy in Iraq in August 2003 that killed 14 people.

Foley, of the aid agency USAID, was shot at close range outside his Amman home in a murder that sent shockwaves across Jordan, a close US ally.

* Source: AFP