US-wanted terrorist Ahlam Tamimi. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Jordan has reportedly expelled the husband of US-wanted terrorist Ahlam Tamimi.

Nizar Tamimi, 46, arrived in Qatar after the Hashemite Kingdom refused to renew his residency and asked him to leave within 48 hours, reported the pan-Arab publication Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Thursday.

Ahlam Tamimi, 39, has been accused of being the mastermind behind the Sbarro Pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, that killed 15 people, including seven children, and wounded 130 others. Among those killed were two American citizens, 15-year-old Malki Roth and 31-year-old Judith Greenbaum, who was pregnant at the time. A third American, Chana Nachenberg, has remained in a permanent vegetative state ever since.

Nizar Tamimi was sentenced to life imprisonment for being involved in the 1993 murder and subsequent burning of Chaim Mizrahi.

Both Tamimis were released from prison in 2011 in an exchange between Israel and Hamas for captured Israel Defense Forces’ soldier Gilad Shalit. They married after their release.

Jordan has argued that it cannot extradite Ahlam Tamimi to the United States, where she is on its “Most Wanted Terrorist” list, since she has Jordanian citizenship and a 1995 extradition agreement with the United States was not ratified by Jordan’s government. The United States has offered a $5 million reward for her capture and conviction.

However, reportedly, the Jordanian move to expel Nizar Tamimi could cause his wife to join him in Qatar, which does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Were Ahlam Tamimi to follow her husband, “it is hard to say” if she would be risk being extradited from there to the United States, according to Benjamin Weil, director of the Project for Israel’s National Security for the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET).

“On the one hand, Qatar doesn’t have an extradition treaty with the United States. On the other hand, she risks getting stopped by the Interpol on her way to Qatar. The United States has a lot of leverage over Jordan and was unsuccessful in extraditing her, despite its extradition treaty with the Jordanians,” he told JNS.

“I find it harder to believe that the United States would be successful in extraditing her if she were in Qatar,” continued Weil. “The Jordanians just wanted to put an end to this problem because there is fear among some Jordanian politicians that at some point, the United States will say enough is enough.”