Four high-ranking Jordanians are imprisoned and awaiting trail in what looks like becoming the kingdom’s biggest-ever corruption case. Bribes of JD12 million ($17 million) are alleged to be involved, in connection with expansion plans for Jordan's only oil refinery.
Those arrested are:...
Blog archive: Jordan
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14th March 2010
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17th February 2010I didn't spot this when it happened last month, but it has important implications for freedom of expression. The Jordanian Court of Cassation ruled that websites can be classified as "publications" and are therefore subject to penalties under the kingdom's Press and Publications Law for...
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19th January 2010A 22-year-old Jordanian man has been arrested for uttering "an insult against an Arab head of state". The head of state in question was Hosni Mubarak and the incident occurred outside the Egyptian embassy in Amman during a demonstration protesting against he construction of the border...
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4th January 2010The Jordan Times reports on the case of Ishara Hemanthi, a 23-year-old Sri Lankan domestic worker in Amman: "They would whip me with a phone cord or a water nozzle, and sometimes would pull my hair if I did not finish the tasks they had set for me during the day," she said, adding...
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19th October 2009A 22-year-old Jordanian woman with stomach pains was taken to the doctor by her father and an uncle on Saturday. The doctor found she was pregnant. “On their way home, the father stabbed the girl with a sword 25 times in her stomach, killing her immediately as well as her unborn baby boy,” a...
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13th October 2009A Jordanian man has been sentenced to 15 years in jail with hard labour for killing his sister “to cleanse his family's honour”. By Jordanian standards, the sentence is unusually tough – sentences in some previous cases have been as little as a few months. According to a court official...
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30th September 2009Three Jordanian brothers have been accused of murdering their 40-year-old sister because of her “bad reputation”, the Jordan Timesreports. The men killed the divorced mother of five after finding photos of her sitting with her alleged lover, police said. They stabbed her 15 times then set fire...
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16th September 2009A Jordanian doctor could face legal action after reportedly abandoning his Indonesian maid near Directorate of Chest Diseases and Foreigners' Health after she developed tuberculosis. The 28-year-old woman was allegedly beaten by the doctor’s mother and received no wages during the 19 months that...
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2nd September 2009Following the imprisonment of an Egyptian poet for “insulting” President Mubarak (reported here in July), another Arab poet – this time in Jordan – is preparing himself for jail. Islam Samhan was arrested last October and charged him with insulting the prophets because of Quranic references...
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26th July 2009It’s beginning to look as if the Red-Dead Project – an imaginative (some would say fanciful) scheme to channel water from the Red Sea into the Dead Sea – may one day come to fruition. The Jordan Times reports that Egypt has dropped its reservations to the project, which was jointly...
