Jordan: Jordanian woman who assisted in the 2001 suicide bombing of a Jerusalem restaurant has been placed in the most wanted list by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The case on Ahlam Aref Ahmad al-Tamimi, a journalist at a television station in the occupied West Bank was filed under seal in 2013 but was announced publicly by the justice department on Tuesday.
The roots of charges on Tamimi start from August 9, 2001, a bombing at a Sbarro pizzeria that killed 15 people and injured some 120 others. Two of those killed were US nationals.
Now in her mid-30s,Tamimi pleaded guilty at trial in Israel and was sentenced in 2003 to 16 life prison terms.
The criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday charged al-Tamimi,, for conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction outside the US against US nationals.
According to Federal prosecutors, in 2010, Tamimi agreed to have carried out attacks on behalf of the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement and also having travelled with the restaurant bomber to Jerusalem.
Prosecutors say that she instructed the bomber to detonate the explosive device, which was hidden in a guitar, in the area.
Al-Tamimi was freed from prison in 2011 as part of a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas.
She was returned to Jordan, and though the justice department says it is working to bring her into custody, Jordanian courts have said their constitution does not allow for the extradition of Jordanian nationals.
“This is the first time the US government has attempted to achieve the extradition and prosecute someone involved in a Palestinian attack against the Israeli occupation,” Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from Washington, DC, said.
“There have been civil wrongful death suits filed by relatives of Americans killed but this is the first time the government is taking such action.”
Mary McCord, the acting head of the justice department’s national security division, called al-Tamimi an “unrepentant terrorist”.
“The charges unsealed today serve as a reminder that when terrorists target Americans anywhere in the world, we will never forget – and we will continue to seek to ensure that they are held accountable,” McCord said.
Al-Tamimi faces a possible execution or life in prison if she is captured, tried and convicted in the US.