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Jordan reportedly refuses to extradite Sbarro bombing terrorist to US

Jordanian legal officials said the extradition of a terrorist who played a role in a suicide bombing in a Jerusalem Sbarro restaurant that killed several Americans is “not permissible” in light of her previous incarceration in Israel. 

Jordan is reportedly rejecting a US request to extradite a Hamas-affiliated terrorist Ahlam Tamimi, responsible for several American deaths in a suicide bombing in 2001, during the height of the Second Intifada, according to the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad.

The request was made on Tuesday by the US Department of Justice after the FBI placed the terrorist, Ahlam Tamimi, on its Most Wanted Terrorists List.

Tamimi was imprisoned for her role in helping to carry out a suicide bombing at the former Sbarro pizza restaurant in downtown Jerusalem, August 9, 2001, which injured 130 and killed 15 people, including several Americans.

Tamimi was released from prison 10 years later as part of an exchange with the Hamas terrorist organization that agreed to release captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

According to Al-Ghad, Jordanian legal officials said Tamimi’s extradition to the US is “not permissible” in light of her previous incarceration and time served in an Israeli prison. The same officials also claimed there was no extradition treaty with the US.

Since her release in 2011, Tamimi became a television host in Jordan, as well as a heroic figure among many Jordanians who view her as part of the fight against Israel.