Engineers syndicate calls for release of detained member

AMMAN — Security personnel on Wednesday night detained Anas Abu Khudeir, a former prisoner in Israeli jails, a source familiar with the case said Saturday.

“Two officers from the Preventive Security Department on Wednesday headed to Abu Khudeir’s house and asked him to quietly accompany them,” said the source, who preferred anonymity, adding that there was a previous attempt to arrest Abu Khudeir on October 29, but he was not home at the time.

Abu Khudeir, an activist on Jerusalem and prisoner issues, is also the head of the media department at the Jordan Engineers Association (JEA) and the spokesperson of the media team supporting Jordanian prisoners in Israel, Fedaa, the source added.

Abu Khudeir refused to say anything without a lawyer, who visited him on Thursday, the source told The Jordan Times over the phone, noting that the activist is being interrogated now at the General Intelligence Department, without any clear charges against him.

“There were 23 activists in prisons in Jordan. Ten have recently been released while the other 13 face charges of committing acts that harm the country’s security,” the source said.

Between 2006 and 2009, Abu Khudeir was a prisoner in Israel on charges of “resisting the occupation forces”, the source noted.

Abu Khudeir’s brother, Ahmad, was detained in November in Jordan without any clear charges against him as well, the source said.

On Wednesday, the JEA organised a sit-in near the Professional Association Complex in Shmeisani calling for the release of its detained members, including Abu Khudeir, according to a JEA statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times.

JEA President Abdullah Obeidat said this was not the first nor last sit-in as long as “people who call for freedom” and defend the cause of prisoners and Jerusalem are being detained.

Obeidat called for the immediate release of these detainees, stressing that they deserve to be honoured, since they are activists defending Palestine, Jerusalem, Al Aqsa Mosque, prisoners and the homeland, according to the statement.

The statement quoted Abu Khudeir’s father as calling on the government to release all detained activists, noting that they all love Jordan.

The government has said that no arrests are made for political reasons in Jordan but on security-related charges.

In remarks earlier this month, Minister of Political and Parliamentary Affairs Khaled Kalaldeh said recent arrests of Islamists and other individuals were not politically motivated.

“The term ‘political prisoner’ is confused. It is only when people are arrested for their opinions that they are called ‘political prisoners’. This has never been the case in Jordan,” he said.

Kalaldeh was commenting on a memo signed by 24 MPs requesting that all “political prisoners in Jordan” be released.

The signatories argued that the arrests constitute a violation to the Constitution which guarantees freedom of expression.

In the memorandum, the deputies called for avoiding a crackdown on political activism and keeping the door open for risk-free public engagement in politics.