The family of Jordanian journalist Ahlam al-Tamimi has expressed confidence that Jordan’s judiciary would reject the US request to extradite her saying it fully trusts the justice and integrity of courts in the country.
“We are fully confident that the court of cassation will issue a ruling endorsing the verdicts made by the first instance and appeal courts that rejected the [US] extradition request” the family stated in a press release on Thursday.
“The case is still in Jordan’s court of cessation and a definitive decision is yet to be made” the family said.
“The Jordanian monarch government and judiciary will remain the guardians of their nationals and will not allow anyone to harm them or undermine their human value” the family said with confidence.
The US accusation against Tamimi now in her mid-30s has stemmed from a 2001 bombing at a Sbarro pizzeria restaurant in Occupied Jerusalem. 15 people including two US citizens were reportedly killed and some 120 others were injured in that attack.
After her capture Tamimi pleaded guilty at trial in Israel and was sentenced in 2003 to 16 life prison terms.
Tamimi was freed from an Israeli jail in 2011 as part of a prisoner swap deal between Israel and Hamas and decided to return to Jordan.
The US criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday charged Tamimi who works as a journalist for a Palestinian satellite channel with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the US against US nationals.
Federal prosecutors accuse her of having agreed in the summer of 2001 to carry out attacks on behalf of the armed wing of Hamas and having traveled with the restaurant bomber to Jerusalem.
