Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi

Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi (Arabic: ساجدة مبارك عطروس الريشاوي‎ born c. 1970 – 4 February 2015) was a failed suicide bomber. She was convicted of possessing explosives and intending to commit a terrorist act in the November 9, 2005 Amman bombings in Jordan that killed 60 people and injured 115 others, having survived when her explosive belt failed to detonate. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the triple bombings that simultaneously hit three nearby hotels, and said they carried out the attack because the hotels were "a secure place for the filthy Israeli and Western tourists to spread corruption and adultery at the expense and suffering of the Muslims in these countries.".[1]

Background and Amman bombings

She and her husband Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari are thought to have been Iraqi citizens and had Iraqi accents. According to her confession they traveled into Jordan about five days before the bombings on forged passports. She, along with her husband, entered the Amman Radisson Hotel ballroom during a wedding. When she had trouble detonating her suicide belt her husband pushed her out of the room before detonating a bomb that killed 38 people.

Court proceedings

Al-Rishawi was later captured by Jordanian authorities and confessed on national television. She was shown making a filmed confession with an apparent suicide bomb device around her and a detonator in hand showing that the device failed to explode, but later retracted her confession.[2]

She was convicted of possessing explosives and intending to commit a terrorist attack, and sentenced to death by hanging by a Jordanian military court on 21 September 2006.[2] She appealed against this conviction but her appeal was dismissed in January 2007.[3][4] At the time of her execution, she was still engaged in the process of appeal of her sentence.[5]

ISIS

Al-Rishawi was reportedly the sister of a former close aide of deceased al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.[6] Some reports name her brother as Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, who was killed by US forces in Iraq.[7] Al-Qaida in Iraq is now known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

On 24 January 2015, ISIS offered to trade Japanese hostage Kenji Goto for Sajida al-Rishawi.[8] Following the beheading of Goto, Jordan put forward the option of exchanging al-Rishawi for Muath al-Kasasbeh, a Jordanian Air Force lieutenant taken prisoner by ISIS after his F-16 fighter plane crashed near Raqqa, Syria. [9] The prisoner exchange did not go through because ISIS failed to give plausible evidence for Al-Kasasbeh still being alive; later video footage of his execution by burning was posted online in early February 2015, although Jordanian intelligence officials reported the execution itself may already have taken place in early January 2015.[10]

Execution

Al-Rishawi and Ziad Khalaf al-Karbouly were executed by hanging in the morning of 4 February 2015 following the news of the burning to death of al-Kasasbeh by ISIS.[10]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Three Hotels in Amman Attacked by Suicide Bombers". Terrorism.com. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Failed Amman hotel bomber to hang BBC News, 21 September 2006
  3. ↑ "Jordan upholds death penalty for the failed female suicide bomber". Amman, Jordan: People's Daily. 28 January 2007. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
  4. ↑ "Would-be bomber to face execution in Jordan". Amman, Jordan: AP/Seattle Times. 28 January 2007. Retrieved 9 June 2011.
  5. ↑ "Jordan convicts 10 on terrorism charges". Telegraph.co.uk. 4 October 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  6. ↑ "Jordan: Female bomber is sister of top Al-Qaida figure in Iraq". Amman, Jordan: AP/Haaretz. 12 November 2005. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
  7. ↑ "Who is Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, the female suicide bomber at the heart of 'Isis' Japanese prisoner swap plan?". The Independent. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  8. ↑ Jason Hanna, CNN (27 January 2015). "New apparent ISIS post threatens Japanese hostage, Jordanian pilot - CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 2 February 2015.
  9. ↑ Laura Smith-Spark and Michael Martinez, CNN (4 February 2015). "Who was Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh, killed by ISIS? - CNN.com". CNN. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Michaels, Jim; Bacon, John. "Jordan executes two in response to pilot's slaying". USA Today. Retrieved 7 February 2015.

External links

Wikinews has related news: Seven sentenced to death for Jordanian suicide attacks