| One step forward,two steps back |
An appeals court has overturned the conviction of a Jordanian found guilty of financing Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi's insurgent group in Iraq, according to a ruling obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. The Oct. 31 conviction of Bilal Mansur al-Hiyari by the military State Security Court "fell short of adequate justifications and causes," the Court of Cassation said in the March 20 ruling. The United States has accused al-Hiyari of financing al-Zarqawi, a fellow Jordanian who leads the most active insurgent group in Iraq. Washington said in April it would freeze any assets al-Hiyari may have in the United States and was asking U.N. members to do likewise. The court demanded a retrial for al-Hiyari, who had already served his six-month jail sentence and has been released. He is believed to be in Jordan, but his whereabouts were not known Tuesday.| Have they checked Damascus? Good moneymen are hard to come by, ya know. |
Jordanian security officials declined to say if he was being sought for a retrial, where he could be convicted again and possibly receive a harsher sentence. The U.S. government contends that al-Hiyari became acquainted with al-Zarqawi when they met in Afghanistan in 1989.| "We'll always have Kandahar, Abu my sweet." |
It has said al-Hiyari traveled to Iraq in 2003 and sent funds to al-Zarqawi's network through messengers. Jordanian military prosecutors said in their indictment that al-Zarqawi recruited al-Hiyari to "raise funds to finance military operations on the Jordanian and Iraqi arenas." The indictment said U.S. forces in Iraq were specifically targeted. |