Abdullah pardons pro-Zarqawi MPs

[ECH1969]

Jordan's King Abdullah II pardoned two Islamist lawmakers Saturday who were convicted of stirring sectarian strife for their praise of the slain al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the official Petra news agency reported.

King Abdullah, the ultimate authority in Jordan, issued a "special amnesty" Saturday, decreeing that both men be released immediately, the agency reported. No other details were immediately available.

Abu Fares described al-Zarqawi as a "martyr," while Abu Sukkar lauded his "martyrdom" while paying condolences at the terrorist leader's family home in Zarqa, outside the Jordanian capital.

After the wake, Abu Fares said he would not apply the term "martyr" to the "mobs and ignorant people" killed in the triple Amman hotel blasts last November.

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