Amman hotel bomber's appeal fails

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Jordan's highest court has upheld the death sentence for a failed Iraqi suicide bomber involved in attacks on Amman hotels that killed 60 people.

Sajida al-Rishawi confessed to planning an attack with her husband, but said her explosives belt did not detonate.

But she later said the confession was made under duress and changed her plea. The group al-Qaeda in Iraq said it carried out the November 2005 attacks.

Six other people tried in their absence have also been sentenced to death.

Rishawi's husband, Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari, died after detonating his explosives belt at a crowded wedding party at the Radisson hotel - the worst of three attacks.

She said they were married just days before the attack and did not consummate the marriage.

Her lawyer said Shamari had forced her to go with him.

Correspondents say the blasts at three five-star hotels shook Jordan, a relatively stable country in the volatile Middle East, because of the high number of civilian casualties - mainly Jordanian Muslim women and children.

'Flawless'

The appeals court said it endorsed the sentence passed by a military court in September 2005 because Rishawi was "guilty beyond doubt of possessing explosives and having had the intention and will to carry out terrorist attacks whose outcome is destruction and death," AP news agency reported.

The court also termed the earlier verdict and sentencing as "flawless".

AP said the decision was issued on 17 January, but court documents had only surfaced 10 days later.

The court's decision on Rishawi, 35, is considered final.

The BBC's Dale Gavlak in Amman says that although King Abdullah - as Jordan's ultimate authority - could overturn the ruling, it is thought unlikely that he would do so.

Execution in Jordan is carried out by hanging.