Amman: Jordan's State Security Court (SSC) on Thursday sentenced seven people to death after finding them guilty of involvement in last November's Amman hotel bombings, judicial sources said.
Those sentenced to death are Iraqi woman Sajeda Al-Rishawi, who was the only defendant present in the court, and six other suspects who are still at large and were tried in absentia.
The suspects include one Jordanian and five Iraqis.
The tribunal decided to waive the death penalty from an eighth defendant, Jordan-born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, because he was killed in a US air strike in Iraq on June 7, sources said.
Al-Zarqawi led the al-Qaeda-affiliated group, Jihad and Tawhid Brigades, which claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings at three Amman hotels on November 9 that killed 60 people and wounded more than 90.
Al-Rishawi, 39, was arrested three days after the blasts and confessed to have been part of the suicide gang that also included three men who blew themselves up at the five-star hotels. One of the suicide bombers was al-Rishawi's husband.
She claimed that her explosive belt failed to detonate at a wedding party at Radisson SAS, one of the targeted hotels.
The verdicts can be appealed before the Court of Cassation, judicial sources said.
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