Killer of British tourist gets death sentence

The Jordanian of Palestinian origin who shot dead a British tourist in Amman's Roman amphitheatre in September was sentenced to death by a Jordanian military court yesterday.

Nabeel Ahmed Issa al-Jaourah, 38, who killed Christopher Stokes in the pistol attack and wounded five other Westerners and a Jordanian police officer, responded: "I am a holy warrior and I thank God for this verdict."

The judge, who cannot be named under Jordanian regulations, told the defendant: "You deserve to die for your hideous crime."

Jaourah had originally pleaded not guilty. But prosecutors said after the verdict that he had since confessed and urged the court "to hand him the harshest punishment".

Prosecutors have said Jaourah was acting alone in the 4 September shooting, and had no terrorist links.

In an earlier hearing, Jaourah said that he received God's "blessing when I killed a British man and hurt others, because they are fighting the Prophet and his soldiers since [the] Balfour declaration" - a reference to the 1917 document by the British government promising support for a Jewish homeland.