Jordan convicts al-Qaida militant in slaying of US diplomat, sentences him to death

Militant convicted in US diplomat killing in Amman

AMMAN, Jordan — Jordan’s military court has convicted an al-Qaida militant in the 2002 slaying of a U.S. diplomat in Amman and sentenced him to death in a retrial.

Mohammed Ahmed Youssef al-Jaghbeer was found guilty of involvement in the killing of 60-year-old Laurence Foley. The USAID administrator was gunned down outside his Amman home in October 2002.

Al-Jaghbeer was first convicted in absentia in 2005. He was retried after his capture in Iraq and transfer to Jordan, but an appeals court overturned the second guilty verdict on procedural grounds and ordered a new trial.

In Monday’s verdict, the court found that al-Jaghbeer facilitated contacts between al-Qaida and an Amman cell that killed Foley.