'Gov't working to secure release of 21 Jordanians detained in Sudan'

AMMAN – The government is working to release Jordanian students detained in Sudan over leaked secondary school national exam papers, an informed source said Wednesday. 

So far, the government has managed to secure the release of four students out of the 25 detained by the Sudanese authorities, the Cabinet source told The Jordan Times on condition of anonymity. 

"Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour has issued directives to form a committee to follow up on the issue and ensure a speedy release of the detained students," the source added.

He noted that the government is also contacting the students' parents here in Jordan to comfort them. 

"We are assuring them that their children will be out soon," added the source.

MP Mustafa Rawashdeh, who was on a visit to Sudan last week along with MP Nayef Leimoun to follow up on the issue, confirmed to The Jordan Times that 21 Jordanians are still detained in Sudan.

"We were promised that the students will be released on Sunday but they are still behind bars," Rawashdeh added.

He noted that the "crime these students committed does not require all this time in prison".

"We are still doing all we can to release the students in question," the lawmaker added.

The exam leak incident prompted the Education Ministry to announce that secondary school certificates from Sudan will not be officially accredited in Jordan.

Rawashdeh said the ministry has not revisited this decision so far although the embassy in Khartoum has called for reconsidering it, citing a large Jordanian community in the North African country.

Jordanian students in Sudan have been observing an open-ended strike outside the Kingdom's embassy in Khartoum to demand a review of the decision.

More than 700 Jordanians have flown to Sudan to complete the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination (Tawjihi), believing that the exams are easier abroad.

In previous remarks, Abdullah Sarayreh, one of the students in Sudan noted that he made the decision to apply for high school in Sudan after consulting the ministry. 

The 20-year-old student is among those who decided to travel to Sudan to obtain their certificates there after failing to pass the Tawjihi back home.

Sarayreh noted that the “difficult” curricula in Sudan prompted the majority of Jordanians to switch to the Libyan system, which comes in a multiple-choice format.

The paper leak incident involved Jordanian students enrolled in the Sudanese system, he said.