Jordan sentences nine in Muslim Brotherhood plot against state

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By Suleiman Al-Khalidi

AMMAN (Reuters) -A Jordanian military court on Wednesday sentenced nine defendants to between three and 15 years in jail over an alleged Muslim Brotherhood-linked plot to destabilise the country, a case that led authorities to outlaw the kingdom’s largest opposition group.

The court said the defendants were among more than a dozen Brotherhood members arrested last April, accused of receiving training and financing in Lebanon to carry out attacks inside Jordan using rockets and drones. 

Authorities said the Muslim Brotherhood members had planned attacks on security targets and sensitive locations in Jordan, but did not identify the targets.

Two main defendants accused of illegally manufacturing weapons were sentenced to 15 years in prison, while another received seven years for complicity. Six others were handed three-year sentences on charges including acts that endangered public safety and recruitment for training, a court statement carried by state media said.

Four other defendants accused of assembling drones were acquitted.

All the defendants denied the charges.

Jordanian authorities said at least one rocket was ready to be launched as part of an operation that had been under surveillance by security forces since 2021.

The crackdown was followed a week later by a government decision to outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood, seize its assets and close its offices after authorities said some members were linked to a sabotage plot.

Jordan had for years resisted pressure from Gulf Arab states and Egypt — long wary of the Brotherhood — to ban the group. But in line with a regional clampdown on political Islam and dissent, Amman has over the past few years tightened restrictions on the movement, banned public rallies and detained several prominent members.

The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has denied any link to the alleged plot but said some members may have been individually involved in smuggling arms to Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The group says it renounced violence decades ago and continues to pursue its Islamist vision through peaceful means.

The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last year, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi: Editing by Sharon Singleton)