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Jordan jails man for stabbing elderly German tourist

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Jordan jails man for stabbing elderly German tourist
Photo: DPA

A military tribunal on Sunday sentenced a Jordanian man to 15 years in prison for stabbing and wounding a 63-year-old German tourist in Amman last year, a judicial official said.

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"The state security court sentenced Mohammed Barham, 35, to 15 years in jail with hard labour because of the gravity of his act that could have led to the death of an innocent person," the official told AFP.

"Barham's act has negatively affected tourism in Jordan and harmed its reputation."

The verdict can be appealed within 30 days.

Barham was charged with carrying out an act of terror, even though on the day of the stabbing on March 13, 2008 Interior Minister Eid Fayez insisted there was no political dimension to the crime.

Jordan is considered as one of the most stable countries in the violence-wracked Middle East and has endeavored to promote itself as a key tourist destination.

But in September 2006, a Jordanian blacksmith opened fire on a group of Western holidaymakers, killing a Briton and wounding five other tourists at a Roman amphitheatre that is one of Amman's main attractions.

In December of the same year, a Dutch tourist was shot and slightly wounded by armed robbers in northern Jordan.

In November 2005, three suicide bombings in Amman hotels claimed by the Iraq branch of Al-Qaeda killed 60 people.

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