Amnesty International Report 1997 - Jordan

Five prisoners of conscience arrested in previous years continued to be held. Hundreds of people, including prisoners of conscience, were detained for political reasons during the year, among them more than 500 people arrested after violent anti-government protests in August. Political detainees were held incommunicado in prolonged preventive detention for up to 40 days. More than 100 political detainees were sentenced to prison terms, some after unfair trials before the State Security Court. Reports of torture and ill-treatment, particularly of detainees arrested for common law offences, continued. One person died in custody, allegedly after torture or ill-treatment. At least nine people were executed and 21 others were sentenced to death. At least five asylum-seekers were sent back to countries where they were at risk of torture. ‘Abd al-Karim Kabariti was appointed Prime Minister in February by King Hussein bin Talal. He promised to "respect human rights and the freedom of the press". In August, demonstrations and riots against a doubling of the price of bread took place in Krak, Tafileh, Amman, the capital, and other towns. A total of 107 detainees were released in royal amnesties in November and December. Prisoners of conscience who remained in prison during the year included ‘Ata' Abu'l-Rushta, spokesperson for the Hizb al-Tahrir fi'l-'Urdun (LPJ), Liberation Party in Jordan, a party seeking to re-establish the Islamic Caliphate, was sentenced to three years' imprisonment in February by the State Security Court for lese-majesty under Article 195(1) of the Penal Code in connection with an interview he had given to the newspaper al-Hiwar (see Amnesty International Report 1996). The statements on which the charges were based did not advocate violence. Leith Shubeilat, head of the Engineers' Union and an Islamist leader, who had been arrested in December 1995 (see Amnesty International Report 1996) and sentenced to three years' imprisonment in March by the State Security Court on charges that included lese-majesty, was released in November when King Hussein bin Talal came personally to the prison and granted him an amnesty. Four other members of the LPJ, sentenced in previous years for distributing leaflets, remained held as prisoners of conscience (see Amnesty International Report 1995). Prisoners of conscience included at least five journalists who were held in detention on remand for up to 10 days on charges such as lese-majesty or inciting sectarian or ethnic disorder. Hilmi Asmar, editor of the newspaper al-Sabil, was held for nine days in September before being released without charge after publishing a report which alleged that members of the internal security service had tortured detainees. Other prisoners of conscience included members of various political opposition groups, including the Arab Socialist Ba‘th Party and Hashad, the Jordan People's Democratic Party, arrested at the time of the violent anti-government protests in August and charged with inciting riots. Hundreds of people arrested on political grounds were held incommunicado for up to 40 days. They included members of groups opposed to the peace process with Israel and more than 500 people accused of inciting or participating in the August bread riots. Walid Ahmad Taylakh, arrested in March, was held for 37 days in incommunicado detention in the General Intelligence Department (GID) detention centre, where he was allegedly tortured by methods including falaqa (beatings on the soles of the feet). ‘Umar Abu Ragheb, a board member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights in Jordan, was held incommunicado in the GID headquarters in Amman and released in August. Many of those arrested were released without charge. Others were charged with offences including lese-majesty or destruction of property. At least 120 people were brought to trial for political offences. They included journalists, most of whose trials ended in acquittals. Among them were Jihad al-Khazen, director of the newspaper al-Hayat in the United Kingdom, who was tried in absentia, and Salameh Ne‘mat, a journalist on the newspaper. They were brought to trial in April before the Court of First Instance in Amman and acquitted on four charges, including slander, after writing an article stating that a number of journalists and officials were on the payroll of the Iraqi authorities. Those brought before the State Security Court on charges involving political violence included seven members of an Islamist group known as the Bay'a al-Imam (Allegiance to the Imam) who were tried on charges including manufacturing explosives (see Amnesty International Report 1996). Six others, tried in the same case but released on bail, were charged with lese-majesty. At a session in June all retracted their confessions, stating that they had been subjected to physical and psychological torture during more than six months' pre-trial incommunicado detention in the GID headquarters in Amman. The judge agreed to hear evidence on alleged falsification of arrest dates to conceal their prolonged detention. In November, nine defendants were sentenced to between two years' and life imprisonment and four were acquitted. Salem Bakhit and Ahmad Khaled, accused of attacking a French diplomat in March 1995 (see Amnesty International Report 1996), were sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour and 10 years' imprisonment respectively on charges which included "conspiring to carry out terrorist actions". Reports of torture or ill-treatment continued. Most such reports concerned those held by the police, the police of the capital or the preventive security. However, six supporters of Hamas arrested in March and April alleged that they were tortured in the headquarters of the GID by being severely beaten, especially by falaqa, after arrest. Medical certificates of four of the detainees, who were released without charge in May and June, showed injuries consistent with their allegations. A complaint about the alleged torture was made to the military public prosecutor but no action was known to have been taken by the end of the year. Dozens of those arrested in August after riots in Krak and other towns stated that they were beaten after arrest by police or preventive security in local police stations or in Swaqa Prison. One person, arrested in Tafileh, said that he was tortured by the preventive security police with electric shocks, beatings and suspensions in a painful position. He was brought before the military public prosecutor after 23 days' incommunicado detention. He stated that he made a complaint about his treatment, but was not informed about any action taken. Yunus Abu Dawleh died in December, three hours after he had been arrested by the police in Jabal Hussein, Amman. His body reportedly showed signs of bruising on the shoulder and neck; however, the medical certificate stated that he died of "heart disease". No investigation was carried out into the alleged extrajudicial execution of Mahmud Khalifeh in July 1995 (see Amnesty International Report 1996). At least nine people were executed during the year. They included ‘Uthman ‘Ali Abu Lawi and Sabri ‘Abdallah Abu Fawdeh, both convicted of raping minors. These were the first executions for rape, which had been made a capital offence under an amendment to the Penal Code in 1988. At least 21 people were sentenced to death including Muntasser Rajab Abu Zayd, who was allegedly beaten and deprived of sleep, together with his wife, who was not a suspect. His confession reportedly formed the basis of his conviction for murder. Death sentences on 18 prisoners were commuted, including the death sentences imposed in 1995 on eight prisoners known as the "Arab Afghan" group. They had been convicted of attempting to destabilize the Jordanian Government by carrying out armed attacks on cinemas. Death sentences imposed on the eight in 1994 had been overturned by the Court of Cassation in March 1995 and reimposed by the State Security Court in July 1995 (see Amnesty International Reports 1995 and 1996). Asylum-seekers continued to be returned to countries where they were at risk of torture. They included Hassan Adam ‘Ali, a Sudanese national and a political activist, who had lived in Jordan since 1993. He was arrested by Jordanian security officials in January and deported to Khartoum, Sudan, where he was detained for six weeks. A deserter from the Iraqi army deported to Jordan from the United Arab Emirates in June was deported the same month to Iraq where he was arrested and may have suffered torture or amputation of the ear as punishment. In correspondence with the Jordanian Government, Amnesty International raised concerns about continuing executions and the expansion of the number of crimes punishable by the death penalty; the refoulement of asylum-seekers; and the detention of prisoners of conscience. The GID responded on specific questions concerning individual detainees and sent a response to the Amnesty International Report 1996.