State Security Court sets date for ‘tobacco case’ trials

AMMAN — The State Security Court (SSC) has set Wednesday as the start of dozens of trials involving defendants and companies suspected in the so-called tobacco case after arresting the main suspect in January, a senior judicial source said.

“The SSC will start trying the suspects on Wednesday after receiving the case file from the Court of Cassation,” the senior judicial source told The Jordan Times.

The trial was set to start in mid-February but had to be postponed because one of the defendants contested his detention at the higher court. The court eventually ruled that the detention was legal.

The defendants will stand trial on charges of acts that endanger society’s safety, security and economic resources, as well as committing acts that change the state’s economic structure or endanger society’s basic conditions.

Other charges include accepting or providing, bribes to carry out illegal acts, abusing power and money laundering, as well as tax evasion, among others. 

The SSC indictment sheet in the so-called “tobacco case” has included charges against a minister and former director of the Jordan Customs Department (JCD) Wadah Hmoud, who allegedly cooperated with the main suspect in the case, Awni Mutee, to facilitate smuggled tobacco in exchange for bribes.

According to the indictment list, Hmoud received JD25,000 a month to facilitate the smuggling process.

In 2015, Hmoud assumed office as JCD director and, in ex officio, deputy chairman of the Jordan Free and Development Zones Group, according to the SSC charge sheet. 

In early 2016, the charge sheet maintained, Mutee visited Hmoud at his house “to complain about the procedures of the free zone and that there were employees hindering his work”.

“Hmoud agreed to remove any obstacles that could obstruct the smuggling, and to transfer or refer to retirement any employee who would impede tobacco smuggling. In return, Mutee offered Hmoud money,” the charge sheet stated.

Furthermore, both suspects agreed that Hmoud would notify Mutee of any raids on the latter’s companies, according to the indictment.

Hmoud then contacted suspect Salem Khasawneh, assistant director of the Aqaba Customs Department for inspection affairs, who “agreed to help facilitate the smuggling of tobacco and raw materials for Mutee’s companies, in return for a share of Hmoud’s bribe money”, the charge sheet maintained.

In May 2016, a tip reached the director of anti-customs smuggling, Damen Bani Fawwaz, that “there were large amounts of smuggled tobacco in the local market, which originated from Mutee’s companies and factories”, according to the indictment. 

“Bani Fawwaz wrote a memo for Hmoud who had to refer the memo to the finance minister, and after receiving permission, Bani Fawwaz planned to raid Mutee’s factories in the Zarqa Free Zone,” the charge sheet stated.

Meanwhile, Bani Fawwaz received information that “Mutee’s companies had transferred goods to other warehouses, after Hmoud had notified Mutee about the raid,” the charge sheet said.

In mid-2016, Rangers Director Brig. Gen. Imad Shawawreh called the director of the anti-smuggling department and notified him about warehouses of smuggled tobacco in the Ain Ghazal area, owned by Mutee, and asked for backup from anti-smuggling department patrols.

Before the raid, and after surrounding the warehouse, the indictment sheet maintained, Hmoud called Bani Fawwaz and “asked him to dismiss all the patrols and not to raid the warehouses, but Bani Fawwaz refused due to the fact that the tip came from the Rangers, and that the operation was therefore under their jurisdiction”.

“Hmoud said he would take the necessary procedures, so he called the director of the Rangers and asked him to pull back the patrols on the pretext that JCD personnel were dealing with the situation, at which point Bani Fawwaz had to consent to Hmoud’s order, in light of the Ranger patrols pulling out,” according to the indictment sheet.

The charge sheet alleged that the former JCD director “received various amounts of money, including JD30,000 that was delivered in Umm Uthaina through another suspect”.

“Mutee, Hmoud and Khasawneh also agreed to smuggle two tobacco containers from an Arab country with a customs statement labelling the contents as paper, while in fact, they were laden with various types of tobacco,” the charge sheet stated.

Once the two containers arrived in Aqaba, the charge sheet said, “Khasawneh received orders from Hmoud to facilitate their entry without inspection, telling the customs inspector that the containers would be seized later.”

“The two containers arrived in Ramtha, where anti-smuggling patrols had been blocked from following and therefore could not continue monitoring the smuggled items,” the charge sheet said.

Customs fees and due taxes on the two containers reached JD4 million, while customs fines were estimated at JD8 million, the charge sheet stated.

Out of fears of being exposed, the charge sheet maintained, “Hmoud delivered a letter to the Jordan Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission about the two containers.”

According to the indictment, there was also an episode in which Mutee asked Hmoud to transfer then-customs director of the Zarqa Free Zone Fadi Makhlouf. Hmoud was allegedly paid JD75,000 after transferring Makhlouf.

A while after that, the charge sheet said, “Hmoud asked Mutee, through his brother, for JD200,000 to build warehouses, and repeated his request to Mutee personally.”

“Mutee visited Hmoud at his home and gave him JD130,000 in bribe money, while the latter said that the money would be spent to cover his debts,” according to the charge sheet.

The case began to surface in 2017, after “Hmoud told Mutee’s brother about a planned raid on their factories in Zarqa, but the brother did not tell Mutee, which contributed to the success of the raid,” the charge sheet added.

Following the raid, Mutee allegedly thought that Hmoud had turned on him and pledged to expose him. “The former JCD director told the businessman that he had informed his brother, who said that he had forgot to notify Mutee,” according to the charge sheet.

One night before fleeing the country, Mutee visited Hmoud and gave him JD50,000 for tipping him off on the need to leave the country urgently before he was found out, according to the charge sheet.

The attorney general has demanded that the companies registered under the defendants’ names be dissolved and their property and assets be confiscated.