US may withhold aid from Jordan to pressure it to extradite freed Palestinian prisoner

The US is considering applying pressure to force its ally Jordan to extradite freed Palestinian prisoner Ahlam Al-Tamimi.

Thirty-nine-year-old Al-Tamimi was released from an Israeli jail as part of the 2011 Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal between Palestinians and the Israeli occupation. She had been detained in 2001 and sentenced two years later to 16 life terms for her role in a suicide bombing at a crowded Jerusalem pizzeria during the Second Intifada. Fifteen people, including a 15-year-old Israeli-American girl, were killed in the blast.

According to the Times of Israel, Washington is considering withholding aid from Jordan to force it to hand Al-Tamimi over.

The Palestinian, who was born and raised in Jordan, is one of the FBI’s list of “most wanted terrorists”.

In 2017, Jordan’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, ruled that Al-Tamimi, a Jordanian citizen, cannot be extradited to the US on the grounds that the two countries do not have an extradition treaty.

In a letter addressed to the king of Jordan, the Al-Tamimi family urged him “to work on completely closing this case with the American administration and keeping their hands off of our precious daughter and end the calls for extradition.”

READ: University of Jordan faces backlash for inviting Israel-US academic to online workshop