Jordan death sentence for bombing

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A man convicted over the bomb attack on Jordan's embassy in Baghdad in 2003 has been sentenced to death by a military court in Jordan's capital, Amman.

Jordanian Muammar al-Jaghbeer had helped plan the attack, which killed at least 17 people, prosecutors said.

Jaghbeer, 37, was found to have acted on orders from the then leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Jaghbeer's defence said he had been tortured into confessing and would appeal against the court's ruling.

Foley charges

Prosecutors said Jaghbeer had confessed his involvement in the suicide bombing on 7 August 2003 from the outset of trial, in February 2005.

The defendant rejects the claim, saying it was obtained under torture and duress.

He said during the trial that at the time of the bombing he had been in Mosul, in northern Iraq, and had learned of the attack while under interrogation from US and Iraqi officials.

Charges against his co-accused, Zarqawi, were dropped after he was killed in a US air strike in Iraq, in June 2006.

Jaghbeer is also on trial for his alleged involvement in the 2002 assassination of US diplomat Laurence Foley in Amman.

The Jordanian authorities say they have foiled many attempts by Islamist militants to destabilise the country.