Jordan Jails Syrians over Plot to Kidnap U.S. Aid Worker

Jordan on Monday sentenced two Syrians to three years in jail each after they were charged with plotting to kidnap a U.S. aid worker for ransom last year.

The state security court, a military tribunal, accused them of "terrorist activity" and sentenced them to three years' hard labor, said an AFP reporter in court.

At the start of the trial in December, one defendant, Ibrahim al-Bekai, admitted that he had plotted with his associate Tareq al-Omar to abduct the American who worked with Syrian refugees in Jordan.

The men were arrested in September before they were able to kidnap the aid worker who was not identified in court.

Bekai had told a hearing in December that the plan was hatched in cooperation with a third man who lives in Syria and whom he described as a member of Al-Nusra Front, Al-Qaida's Syria affiliate.