Jordan jails Japanese photographer

Gomi (left) apologised to the victim's family in court

A Jordanian military court has sentenced a Japanese photographer to 18 months in jail for an unintentional explosion which killed an airport guard.

Hiroki Gomi, 36, had pleaded not guilty to charges related to the explosion of a cluster bomb - a battlefield souvenir from Iraq - which blew up as it was being examined.

Gomi, a photographer for leading Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, told the court he was unaware that the device was live.

The presiding judge said he found no evidence that Gomi had criminal intentions when he carried the cluster bomb.

The verdict can be subject to appeal.

The court acquitted Gomi's translator, Jordanian Abdel Salam Helwa, to whom the photographer had given a similar explosive device.

Apology

Gomi was at Jordan's international airport on 1 May, on his way back to Japan, when an X-ray machine detected a metal object in his luggage.

I am not interested if Gomi is jailed or not... I hold no rancour towards him

Abdullah al-Sarhan
victim's brother

As security guard Ali al-Sarhan did a manual search of the photographer's luggage, the cluster bomb exploded.

Sarhan died and three others were wounded.

During the trial, Gomi said he had taken the devices as souvenirs and apologised for the accident.

"I am sorry for the victim and his family, I am sorry for the wounded and I apologise to the Jordanian people," he said.

Mainichi Shimbun also apologised for the incident, and the president of the daily visited Jordan last month to present condolences to the victim's family and King Abdullah.

Gomi's sentence is reported to have been reduced after the security guard's family said they would not pursue the murder charges against him.

"I am not interested if Gomi is jailed or not... I hold no rancour towards him," said the guard's brother, Abdullah.

Gomi had spent two years in Jordan and covered the war in Iraq.