Amnesty International Report 1994 - Jordan

About 270 security detainees were arrested during the year and held almost invariably in prolonged incommunicado detention. They included possible prisoners of conscience. Almost all of those arrested were released uncharged. Up to 13 (including two in absentia) were brought to trial before the State Security Court. There were allegations of torture of detainees in the custody of the General Intelligence Department and the police. At least 12 prisoners were executed, the highest number of executions recorded over the past two decades. At least four people were expelled to countries where they risked human rights violations. National elections for the 80-member Lower House of Parliament, the first in which political parties were formally allowed to participate since 1956, took place in November. By then over 20 political parties had been officially registered in compliance with the Law on Political Parties in force since October 1992. The elections were held under an electoral law amended in August by the government of Prime Minister Dr 'Abd al-Salam Majali, who had taken over in May from Sharif Zeid Ben Shaker. Also in November, King Hussein bin Talal appointed a new 40-member Senate. Prime Minister Majali formed a new government in December. In May an amendment to the law on the State Security Court, introducing a right of appeal before the Court of Cassation, entered into force. The amendment had been originally proposed by the government of Prime Minister Taher Masri in 1991. Members of parliament Leith Shubeilat and Ya'qub Qarrash called for an investigation into their trial by the State Security Court in 1992 (see Amnesty International Report 1993), maintaining that the case against them had been fabricated. The government and Parliament debated the issue at a closed session in March but took no further action. Also in May a new Law on Press and Publications entered into force. It affirms the right to freedom of opinion and expression, but Article 8 requires the press to "refrain from publishing anything contradicting the principles of freedom, national responsibility, human rights, respect for the truth and the values of the Arab and Islamic nation". Article 40 forbids the press from publishing "news harmful to the King or the royal family", "articles which may harm national unity" and "articles or information containing a personal insult to heads of Arab, Islamic or friendly states". Breaches of these provisions can be punished by fines. Starting in September, six journalists were charged with offences under this and other legislation for articles they had written and were awaiting trial at the end of the year. In February King Hussein set up a committee to establish a Centre for Studies on Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights in the Arab World. In October the committee finalized a draft law setting out the Centre's aims and working methods. These included investigating human rights violations in Jordan, making relevant recommendations and reporting annually to the King, Parliament and Cabinet. The draft was presented to Parliament before the end of the year. Some 270 security detainees were held by the General Intelligence Department (GID), almost invariably in prolonged incommunicado detention. They were held without judicial review and almost all of them were released without charge or trial. The 1961 Code of Criminal Procedure allows public prosecutors to renew indefinitely the detention of suspects for periods of up to 15 days at a time. It also allows public prosecutors to deny access to detainees by lawyers and relatives, for an indefinite period, "in a situation of urgency" or when deemed "necessary to discover the truth". These provisions were routinely used by GID officers acting as public prosecutors. Detainees included over 30 alleged members of Islamic organizations. Among them were 'Ata Abu al-Rushta, Official Spokesperson of the Liberation Party in Jordan (LPJ), and Bakr al-Khawalidah, President of the LPJ's Cultural Committee. They were arrested in May and accused of conspiring to change the Constitution by illegal means, including violence. Both detainees maintained that the LPJ did not advocate violence in pursuit of its aims. They were held without access to lawyers until their release in November. The LPJ, which seeks the establishment of an Islamic state encompassing Jordan, did not apply for official registration as it opposes some of the conditions imposed by the Law on Political Parties. Detainees brought before the State Security Court included five military cadets and three others charged with conspiring to kill King Hussein during a graduation ceremony at Mu'ta University in June; working to change the Constitution by illegal means; and membership of the LPJ. Two other defendants were tried in absentia. The defendants had been arrested between April and June and held by the GID without access to lawyers until August, when they were moved to Zarqa military prison and brought to trial. In court, they retracted their confessions saying they had been extracted under torture but the court allowed the confessions to be used as evidence and did not allow them to be examined by doctors of their choice. Their trial was continuing at the end of the year. In October an Amnesty International observer attended sessions of the trial, meeting military judges and GID officers as well as lawyers and relatives of the defendants. In September Ramadan al-Rawashidah, a journalist for the newspaper al-Ahali, was detained for five days in Jweidah prison and then released on bail after he published an article in which he said that the State Security Court was delaying the medical examination of the defendants in the above case. He was accused, together with al-Ahali's editor, Jamil al-Nimri, of slandering the court and violating Article 42 of the Law on Press and Publications, which prohibits the publication of minutes of an ongoing trial without the court's authorization. The trials of the two journalists were pending at the end of the year. There were allegations of torture by the GID and the police. The eight alleged members of the LPJ tried before the State Security Court said that when held in the GID Headquarters' detention centre in Amman they were tortured with methods including falaqa (beatings on the soles of the feet) and threats of sexual assault. One of them, Husayn al-Jidi, sustained an injury over his left eyebrow which he said was caused by beatings, while the prosecutor suggested it was the result of an attempt at suicide by banging his head in his cell. The authorities denied torture and informed Amnesty International in October that the GID detention centre is an official prison, therefore subject to supervision by the prosecuting authorities. However, such supervision is carried out by GID officers in their capacity as public prosecutors. In a separate case relating to drug offences, Ahmad Mustafa was reportedly beaten severely while held in police custody in Ma'an in February and required hospital treatment. His lawyer requested an investigation and compensation but received no answer from the authorities. At least 12 prisoners were executed during the year, the highest number recorded by Amnesty International over the past two decades. Ten were convicted of murder. Two, who were executed in August, had been convicted by the State Security Court of spying for Israel. They did not have the right of appeal, contrary to international safeguards in death penalty cases. The upsurge in executions followed a year in which no executions had taken place. At least four detainees were expelled to countries where they risked abuses such as torture. They included Muhammad Bilbaisi, a Palestinian handed over in July to the Israeli authorities who reportedly ill-treated him and put him on trial for violent offences, and three Sudanese asylum-seekers from southern Sudan, who were sent back to Sudan in December. Amnesty International raised several cases of concern with the authorities and received prompt responses from the gid. Amnesty International welcomed the introduction of the right of appeal from the State Security Court. It remained seriously concerned, however, about the continued practice of prolonged incommunicado detention, which facilitates torture and ill-treatment and compromises the right to a fair trial. It called for the release of any prisoner of conscience; for the urgent introduction of safeguards for detainees such as prompt access to lawyers and judges; and for the supervision of detainees held in GID custody to be carried out by a separate agency. Amnesty International deeply regretted the resumption of executions during the year and continued to call for clemency to be exercised in all death penalty cases. It also called for adequate procedures to be followed in order to ensure that no one was expelled to a country where he or she could be at risk of human rights violations.