Amman, Jordan ? A court on Wednesday sentenced the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and eight other men to death for plotting chemical attacks against sites in Jordan, including the U.S. Embassy.

Al-Zarqawi and three others were sentenced to death in absentia. But the plot’s alleged mastermind, Azmi al-Jayousi, and four co-defendants were in the courtroom when the judge handed down the sentence for the 2004 plot, which security officials foiled before it could be carried out.

The court also sentenced two other defendants to prison terms of between one and three years, and acquitted another two defendants.

The 13 men were charged with conspiring to attack sites in Jordan by setting off a cloud of toxic chemicals that would have killed thousands of people, according to prosecution estimates.