Jordanian Court Sentences Citizens, Acquits Others in Case Linked to Attempts to Support Gaza Resistance

Amman (QNN)- Jordan’s State Security Court issued verdicts on Wednesday against 12 citizens over alleged attempts to aid the Palestinian resistance. The court accused them of “threatening national security” and “attempting to create chaos in the kingdom.”The court sentenced eight men to prison terms ranging from three years and four months to 15 years with hard labor. Four others were acquitted in the same trial.

The heaviest sentences came in what Jordanian authorities called the “Rocket Cell” case. The court sentenced Abdullah Hisham and Muath Ghanem to 15 years of hard labor, and Mohsen Ghanem to seven and a half years.

The defendants were charged with manufacturing weapons with the intent to use them “illegally”, under Jordan’s Anti-Terrorism Law No. 55 of 2006. According to court documents, the three men had started producing rockets inside Jordan to send them ti the occupied West Bank. They allegedly set up two warehouses for manufacturing and storage; one in Zarqa and another in Amman.

Lawyer Abdul Qader Al-Khatib, who represented some of the citizens, told CNN Arabic that the verdicts were very harsh. “This case is political. The alleged acts were not directed at the homeland but at the [Israeli] occupation.”

In another case dubbed as “the recruitment case”, the court sentenced Marwan Al-Hawamdeh and Anas Abu Awad to three years and four months of hard labor.

In the training case, four men (Khadir Abdulaziz, Ayman Ajjawi, Mohammad Saleh, and Farouq Al-Salman) received the same sentence of three years and four months. They were accused of training young men in advanced and “illegal security courses.” Authorities said the goal was to “prepare them for future missions.”

In contrast, the court found four young men not guilty in the drone case, known as the “Drone Cell.” The citizens (Ali Ahmad Qassem, Abdulaziz Haroun, Abdullah Al-Haddar, and Ahmad Khalifa) had been accused of thinking about building drones inside Jordan.

The court ruled that the required criminal intent was not proven and decided to release them immediately.

The four cases became public in April 2025, when Jordanian authorities announced the arrest of several suspects accused of plotting to “destabilize the country.”

Defense lawyers have already filed appeals with Jordan’s Court of Cassation, which has the final say on all State Security Court verdicts.

Al-Khatib said the acquittal in the drone case was a “positive step,” but maintained that the rocket-related sentences remain “excessive and politically motivated.”

The State Security Court, which handles terrorism and espionage cases, operates under special procedures. Human rights organizations have long criticized it for holding closed-door hearings and imposing harsh penalties in politically sensitive cases.