A Jordanian military court has sentenced to death a failed female suicide bomber for her role in devastating simultaneous attacks on three hotels in Amman that killed 60 people.

Standing inside a small fenced-in dock in the packed court, Sajida Al-Rishawi, 35, an Iraqi, showed no emotion as the tribunal of three judges sentenced her to death by hanging for the attacks on November 9, 2005.

Six others, who were tried in absentia, were also sentenced to death.

The bombings of the Radisson hotel during a wedding reception, and of the Hyatt and Days Inn, were claimed by al-Qaeda’s leader in Iraq at the time, the Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was killed earlier this year.

The seven were found guilty "beyond doubt" in the co-ordinated attacks, said the chief judge. Those responsible for the hotel bombings "must be uprooted from society".

Al-Zarqawi was also tried as a fugitive, but the Jordanian court dismissed his case after his death in a US air strike near Baaqouba, north of Baghdad, in June.

Wearing a headscarf and a long blue prison robe, Al-Rishawi, from the Iraqi town of Ramadi, sat on the floor inside the dock, her head resting to the side on her shoulder, and avoided eye contact with a packed room. Two armed policewomen stood outside the dock and asked her to stand up when the chief judge read the verdict.

"The verdict against my client was expected because neither the suspect, nor her family and party that put her in this position, were able to provide me with any supporting evidence to boost my position," Hussein Masri, her lawyer, told The Times. "I cannot make up the evidence."

Mr Masri, who hails from a leading East Bank Jordanian tribe, will lodge an appeal against the guilty verdict in front of the Court of Cassation within 30 days. The ruling is expected to be endorsed, for lack of evidence.

Rishawi, the only one in custody, confessed on Jordanian television after her arrest days after the incident. She said that she intended to carry out the attack, along with her husband, Ali Shammari, but her explosives belt failed to detonate.

She later retracted those statements, saying through her lawyer that she had no intention of killing herself, and insisting that she did not even try to detonate her explosive belt.

During the trial, Mr Masri had argued that her confession had been extracted under duress, and that Rishawi’s marriage to Shammari, which took place shortly before their arrival in Jordan to carry out the attack, had not been consummated.

He tried but failed at the start of the meeting to obtain a psychological evaluation of his client, saying she had a family history of schizophrenia. The lawyer also insisted that Rishawi’s husband had forced her to go with him to Amman, as a cover.

But an explosives expert testified that the trigger mechanism on her belt had jammed.

Shammari and two Iraqi suicide bombers died in the blasts, which sent waves of shock through Jordan, a pro-Western country which has pitched itself as an oasis of stability in a politically troubled region.

The court’s verdict came two weeks after parliament endorsed a controversial anti-terror law which the government wanted to fast-track after the hotel bombings.

Jordan, the second Arab country to sign peace with Israel, has long been targeted by radical Palestinian and hard-line Islamist groups for its moderate policies. The Qaeda group, and al-Zarqawi, are named in several trials underway in Amman, the Jordanian capital.

Tight security measures were enforced outside the court, in a hilly area overlooking the city. Visitors underwent extensive searches. Television crews were kept at bay.

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