Verdict for the Ten

Above the judges' heads on the wall of the Amman courtroom hung a black-draped picture of Jordan's late King Abdullah, his eyes fixed sternly on the proceedings. On trial: ten alleged accomplices of the little tailor's apprentice, a terrorist disciple of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who fired five bullets into Abdullah at Jerusalem's Mosque of the Rock (TIME, July 30).

After a nine-day trial, the military court announced its verdict: death for four of the accused, including Dr. Musa el Husseini, the Mufti's cousin, who loudly pleaded for mercy; acquittal for four others, including an Arab-born Roman Catholic priest. Also sentenced to death in absentia: Colonel Abdullah el Tel, a Mufti man and former officer in Jordan's Arab Legion, described by the prosecution as the kingpin of the plot, and Musa el Ayubi, a grocer named as the colonel's go-between, who in his own hand had written the note ordering the murder ("Don't be afraid. Kill. . .").

Jordan asked Egypt to hand over El Tel and El Ayubi; there was little doubt Egypt would refuse. Said El Tel: "The verdict makes me laugh . . . Any court in the world would find me completely innocent."

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