JORDANIAN PRISON HUNGER STRIKES END

UNCLAS AMMAN 006468

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PTER ASEC JO
SUBJECT: JORDANIAN PRISON HUNGER STRIKES END

REF: AMMAN 4529


1. Summary. Complaining of slow-moving court proceedings in
terrorism cases, inmates began a hunger strike July 12 that
spread to include, at its peak, 56 prisoners in three
Jordanian prisons. By August 5, all of the protesters had
ended their strikes. End Summary.


2. On July 12, five inmates at Qafqafa Correctional and
Rehabilitation Center in the north of Jordan began a hunger
strike to protest against the alleged slowness of the court
system to issue verdicts in their cases. The five were part
of a group of nine who were convicted by the State Security
Court (SSC) in September 2000 for plotting to attack Israeli
and Western tourists in Jordan. The group had originally
received sentences ranging from seven years to the death
penalty, but, according the Jordan Times, their cases have
been reviewed and their convictions overturned three times by
the Court of Cassation. Each time the Cassation court ruled
that some of the charges were covered by a 1999 royal
amnesty. However, in April 2005 the SSC upheld its previous
rulings, stating that the "final and decisive phases" of the
plot were hatched after the amnesty was issued.


3. By July 17, seventeen inmates were engaged in the Qafqafa
hunger strike, including Mohammad Shalabi, also known as Abu
Sayyaf, who is blamed by the GOJ for inciting an uprising in
Ma'an in 2002 that left six people dead (reftel). The
following day, July 18, two inmates at Swaqa prison started a
similar strike to protest their prolonged detentions without
final disposition of their cases. Jamal Degheidi, one of the
two Swaqa strikers, had been imprisoned for 14 months on a
state-security related charge, according to press reports.
Additionally, 28 inmates at the Juweidah Correctional and
Rehabilitation Center staged a one-day hunger strike to
express solidarity with the Qafqafa prisoners.


4. On July 25, the Qafqafa strike ended when the director of
the Correctional Centres Administration, Colonel Saad Ajrami,
and Qafqafa warden Colonel Hani Hiyari promised the inmates
that their demands would be conveyed to the judicial
authorities. The two officers then had a meal with the
prisoners. The hunger strike at Swaqa prison continued,
however, peaking at 11 inmates. By July 31, seven Swaqa
inmates were still protesting what they claimed were
unreasonably protracted judicial procedures. Five of these
seven gave up their protest over the next few days, and the
last two were persuaded to end their hunger strike on August
5 after Ajrami assured them that their demands would be also
be relayed to the appropriate authorities.
HALE