Jordanian soldier gets life for killing three US trainers

AMMAN: A Jordanian court on Monday sentenced a soldier to life imprisonment over the killing of three American military trainers outside an army base last year.

The military court in Amman found 39-year-old Maarik al-Tawaiha guilty of shooting the trainers as they waited to enter the King Faisal base at Al-Jafr in southern Jordan on November 4. The charge sheet did not indicate that he had any ties to militant groups.

US embassy staff and relatives of the victims were present at Monday´s hearing, which took place under heavy security.

The court sentenced Tawaiha to "hard labour for life", a term that usually lasts 20 years but could stretch to a full lifetime, a judicial official told an AFP correspondent at the courthouse. It also demoted him from sergeant to second private and threw him out of military service.

The prosecution in June accused him of "voluntary manslaughter" over the deaths of Matthew Lewellen, Kevin McEnroe and James Moriarty. He was also charged with "insulting the dignity and reputation of the armed forces and violating military orders".