Sajida Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi ( ar, ساجدة مبارك عطروس الريشاوي} 1970 – 4 February 2015) was a failed
suicide bomber
A suicide attack is any violent attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout histor ...
. She was convicted of possessing explosives and intending to commit a terrorist act in the 9 November
2005 Amman bombings
The 2005 Amman bombings were a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on three hotel lobbies in Amman, Jordan, on 9 November 2005. The explosions at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and the Days Inn started at around 20:50 ...
in Jordan that killed 60 people and injured 115 others, having survived when her
explosive belt
An explosive belt (also called suicide belt or a suicide vest) is an improvised explosive device, a belt or a vest packed with explosives and armed with a detonator, worn by suicide bombers. Explosive belts are usually packed with ball bearings, ...
failed to detonate.
Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for the triple bombings that simultaneously hit three nearby hotels, and said they carried out the attack because the hotels were "a secure place for the filthy Israeli and Western tourists to spread corruption and adultery at the expense and suffering of the Muslims in these countries."
Background and Amman bombings
Al-Rishawi and her husband
Ali Hussein Ali al-Shamari are thought to have been Iraqi citizens and had Iraqi accents. According to her confession they traveled into Jordan about five days before the bombings on forged passports. She, along with her husband, entered the Amman
Radisson Hotel ballroom during a wedding. When she had trouble detonating her suicide belt her husband pushed her out of the room before detonating a bomb that killed 38 people.
Court proceedings
Al-Rishawi was later captured by Jordanian authorities and confessed on national television. She was shown making a filmed confession with an apparent suicide bomb device around her and a detonator in hand showing that the device failed to explode, but later retracted her confession.
She was convicted of possessing explosives and intending to commit a terrorist attack, and sentenced to death by hanging by a Jordanian
military court
A court-martial or court martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of memb ...
on 21 September 2006.
She appealed this conviction but her appeal was dismissed in January 2007.
At the time of her execution, she was still engaged in the process of appeal of her sentence.
ISIL
Al-Rishawi was reportedly the sister of a former close aide of deceased
al-Qaeda in Iraq leader
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, named by some reports as Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, who was killed by US forces in Iraq.
On 24 January 2015, the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
(ISIL) offered to trade Japanese journalist
Kenji Goto
was a Japanese freelance video journalist covering wars and conflicts, refugees, poverty, AIDS, and child education around the world. In October 2014, he was captured and held hostage by Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants after en ...
and spare
Royal Jordanian Air Force Lieutenant
Muath al-Kasasbeh for Sajida al-Rishawi. Jordan put forward the option of exchanging al-Rishawi for al-Kasasbeh. The proposed exchange did not go further because ISIL failed to give plausible proof of al-Kasasbeh being alive; Goto was beheaded in late January 2015 and ISIL released video footage in early February 2015 of al-Kasasbeh being
burned alive
''Burned Alive: A Victim of the Law of Men'' is a best-selling book, ostensibly a first-person account of an attempted honor killing. The author, Souad, is described as a Palestinian woman now living in Europe who survived an attempted murder ...
, although Jordanian intelligence officials reported his killing took place in early January 2015.
Execution
Al-Rishawi and
Ziad Khalaf Raja al-Karbouly were
executed by hanging in the morning of 4 February 2015, which was expedited in retaliation for the burning death of al-Kasasbeh by the
Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ...
.
See also
*
Female suicide bombers
Female suicide bombers are women who carry out a suicide attack, wherein the bomber kills herself while simultaneously killing targeted people. Suicide bombers are normally viewed as male political radicals but since the 1960s female suicide attac ...
References
External links
Text of confession*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rishawi, Sajida
Iraqi female criminals
1970 births
2015 deaths
Female suicide bombers
Iraq–Jordan relations
Members of al-Qaeda in Iraq
Executed Iraqi people
Iraqi people convicted of murder
People convicted on terrorism charges
People convicted of murder by Jordan
People executed by Jordan by hanging
21st-century executions by Jordan
Terrorism in Jordan
Executed Iraqi women
Iraqi people executed abroad