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AMMAN — Citizens from Irbid's village of Samad barred the family of a terrorist who was killed during a security raid on Tuesday from burying their son in the village’s cemetery, residents said.

Leaked documents showed that relatives of the terrorists, who exchanged fire with the raiding force in Irbid and were killed, signed written pledges to bury their sons "silently", without prayers in mosques and without opening condolences houses.

When the word spread in Samad that one of these would be buried in their village, 15km west of Irbid, they reacted with anger and decided to ban the burial, which they apparently did. 

A Samad resident confirmed reports that the village people contacted MP Mustafa Amawi and Irbid Governor Saad Shihab and threatened to “burn the body” if the family insisted on burying the deceased in Samad, which is inhabited by more than 2,000 people. 

The reaction by the villagers came amid a wave of anti-terrorism sentiments all over Jordan, which celebrated the martyrdom of Major Rashed Zyoud, who fell during the operation that lasted for more than 10 hours.

Amawi and Shihab were not available for a comment on Saturday. 

News reports published on local websites quoted Shihab as saying that he was studying the request of Samad’s people to bury the terrorist somewhere else but not in their village.

The governor reportedly said that he was looking for solutions to bury the seven killed terrorists without triggering trouble with local residents, adding that “all the dead bodies are still in the forensic unit”. 

The residents who talked to The Jordan Times said they know very little about the dead terrorist, saying he was of a low profile and was not a social person.

A young resident, Ahmad, said he himself never heard of the terrorist’s name before or ever seen him although they were almost of the same age, in their mid-20s. 

Echoing Ahmad’s remarks, an elderly man from Samad, who preferred to remain unnamed, said he never saw the young man or his father, adding that he heard that the family of the dead terrorist moved to Samad some 10 years ago from a smaller nearby village called Zaatari.

AMMAN — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday expressed his condolences to His Majesty King Abdullah over the death of Major Rashed Zyoud.

In a telephone call, Abbas offered his sympathies to all Jordanians over the passing of Zyoud, who was killed in the line of duty.

Zyoud’s death, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said, has become a unifying factor for Jordanians, bringing them all together and increasing their solidarity.

Offering his condolences on Friday to the family of Zyoud, whose son was killed last Tuesday during a raid against “Daesh-affiliated outlaws” in Irbid, Ensour said martyrs make history and build nations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

Jordanians’ unity during hard times and their solidarity with their leadership has won respect and admiration all over the world, the premier added during a visit to the condolences house, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat and State Minister Salameh Neimat.

The Irbid operation, which started on Tuesday evening and continued into the early hours of Wednesday, led to the death of seven people identified by the authorities as “Daesh-affiliated”.

The fallen officer’s father, Maj. Gen. Hussein Zyoud said Rashed is “the son of all Jordanians”.

Also on Friday, Ensour received a telephone call from his Palestinian counterpart Rami Hamdallah, who expressed his condolences over the passing of Zyoud. 

Hamdallah stressed that the Palestinian people stand by their Jordanian brothers and sisters in the face of terrorism and extremism, Petra said.

AMMAN — Members of the Zyoud family in the West Bank opened a house of condolences over the death of Jordanian officer Rashed Zyoud, in a step hailed by social media users as a sign of the closeness of Jordanians and Palestinians.

Zyoud was killed during an operation last week against an armed group in the northern city of Irbid that also resulted in the killing of seven “Daesh-affiliated outlaws”.

The Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Saturday that the Zyoud family in Jenin, Palestine, opened their diwan (family gathering place) to receive people who want to pay condolences over the officer’s death.

Commenting on the gesture, Mohammad Hassan Opedat wrote on Facebook: “We are one people not two nations.”

He reported similar gestures in Gaza, Nablus and Ramallah. 

Ahmad Srour said this is an act of solidarity by Palestinians with Jordanians. 

“In Palestine, many houses of condolences were opened for the martyr of Jordan Zyoud. One country,” he also wrote on Facebook. 

The Zyoud family in Palestine on Saturday named a main street in Jenin after Major Rashed Zyoud, Petra reported. 

The family condemned the “cowardly terrorist act” that ended Rashed’s life. 

A representative of Jenin’s governor voiced his condolences to the Jordanians, particularly the Zyoud family, over the death of Rashed. 

AMMAN — The Centre for Defending the Freedom of Journalists (CDFJ) said on Saturday it has launched a campaign to call for cancelling Article 11 of the Electronic Crime Law under the title “#Talking_is_not_a_crime”.

The campaign aims at raising awareness of the article’s restrictions on freedom of expression and the media, since it allows suspending and detaining reporters, journalists and social media activists over what they write, the CDFJ said in a statement.

Moreover, the centre seeks to gain public support to pressure the government into amending the law and cancelling this “freedom-restricting” provision.

In the statement, the CDFJ said that since the Law Interpretation Bureau ruled that slander on news websites and social networking sites is covered by the Electronic Crimes Law, seven journalists and social media activists have been detained.

The CDFJ, supported by media institutions and social media activists, created a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/hakimoshgareemeh) that includes information about restrictions enforced by the law on freedom of expression and the media, especially Article 11.

The campaign urges the public to sign an online petition on its page.

The statement said people’s reactions and opinions will be published and the page will be updated regularly with news on the campaign’s activities.

Moreover, it will continue until after the World Press Freedom Day, marked on May 3 every year. 

The CDFJ conducted a legal study sent to the government and Parliament as part of its “Change” project to reform the media in Jordan. 

The study lists all articles that restrict media freedoms, from the press and publication, electronic crime and State Security Court laws, as well as the Penal Code. 

In the study, the CDFJ presented suggestions for legal amendments and their mandating reasons.

Since late last year, journalists have been criticising the Law Interpretation Bureau’s decision, which they say represents a setback in media freedoms in the Kingdom and will be used to restrict the press and freedom of expression in the country.

The ruling was made after Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour requested an interpretation by the bureau on whether the Press and Publications Law or the Electronic Crimes Law could apply to crimes of slander.

In previous comments, the CDFJ said the Press and Publications Law, which bans the detention of journalists, should apply in cases of publications.

AMMAN — Authorities late last week removed 11 illegal fixtures that were monthly diverting 250,000 cubic metres from a main carrier that supplies south Amman with water, an official said on Saturday.

Based on field surveys, remote sensing data and complaints from south Amman residents about dropping water supply, the ministry and security forces raided late last week locations in Um Al Amad area alongside the airport road, the official said.

“The illegal fixtures were diverting 8,000 cubic metres of water every day from an 800-millimetre conveyor,” the official at the Water Ministry told The Jordan Times on condition of anonymity. 

“Plastic pipes were diverting the water to distant farms, where the water was being collected in ponds for the irrigation of hundreds of dunums and for selling water to people via tankers,” he noted.

The official noted that violators were referred for legal action and will be fined.

The Ministry of Water and Irrigation launched in 2013 a national campaign to end all violations on water networks and resources. Around 110 million cubic metres (mcm) of water have been saved since the campaign was launched.

Sealing illegal wells and stopping attempts to dig new ones across the country have resulted in saving 80mcm of underground water over the past three years, while ending violations on water networks and resources has succeeded in saving 30mcm of freshwater that was being diverted from main carriers, according to recent figures from the ministry.

Since the launch of the campaign, the ministry has dismantled 21,037 illegal fixtures on water mains and resources, sealed 722 illegal wells and seized and confiscated 39 drilling rigs, according to official figures.

The ministry said it is paying hundreds of thousands of dinars every month to implement the ongoing campaign, as it entails the deployment of technical teams, new technologies and heavy machinery to remove violations, while the Jordan Valley Authority is spending JD500,000 every year to replace and install new fences, security systems and warning signs on King Abdullah Canal and the dams, the ministry said recently.

AMMAN — The Cassation Court has overturned a Criminal Court ruling sentencing a 30-year-old man to life in prison after convicting him of murdering his wife and brother-in-law in Zarqa in April 2013.

The Criminal Court had declared the defendant guilty of the premeditated murder of his ex-wife and her 18-year-old brother, and attempting to murder his five-year-old son, and handed him life in prison.

The defendant had originally received the death sentence, but the Criminal Court reduced it to life in prison because the victim’s family dropped charges.

The defendant attempted to take his own life during the incident but he survived.

Court papers said one month before the incident, the defendant obtained a taped confession that his wife was involved in an extra-marital affair and divorced her.

The victim returned to her family’s home and later called her husband asking to see her five-year-old son, since he remained with the defendant, the court added.

The court said then that the defendant “was still not happy and decided to kill his wife for her infidelity”.

On April 11, 2013, the court maintained, the defendant, who was carrying an unlicensed gun, headed to his ex-wife’s home with his son.

“Shortly after arriving, an argument ensued because he attempted to bring his wife back, but her mother refused, so he grabbed his gun and started shooting randomly,” the court said.

His wife, her brother and his son were shot in the process, the court maintained. 

The pathologists established that the woman received one fatal bullet to her heart, while her brother was shot in the lungs, the court papers added.

The couple’s son was struck by a bullet in his waist but survived after undergoing surgery, the court said.

The defendant contested the Criminal Court’s ruling, asking for a lighter sentence because “he did not plot the murder”.

The Cassation Court agreed, saying that the alleged adultery affair occurred a few months before the incident, “and the defendant did not take any action”.

The higher court also ruled that the defendant had the unlicensed gun long before it was used in the shooting “because witnesses said he used it in a wedding in the past”.

“The victim’s mother also testified that the shooting occurred after a heated argument,” the Cassation Court ruled.

The Criminal Court will now examine the higher tribunal’s ruling and either abide by it or insist on its previous verdict, after which the case will be referred automatically to the Cassation Court for a second review.

AMMAN — The state-owned National Petroleum Company plans to boost natural gas production from Risheh field this year, as 2015 was marked by a decline in output, according to Qutaiba Abu Qura, the company’s chairman. 

Natural gas output from the field near the border with Iraq dropped by 6 per cent in 2015 and reached 4.341 billion cubic feet, compared to 4.617 billion cubic feet in 2014, the chairman said in the company’s annual report posted on the Amman Stock Exchange website. 

Abu Qura added that the company’s daily production of natural gas from the field declined due to some technical issues at the gas wells, noting that the average daily gas output in 2015 was 11.893 million cubic feet. 

This year, the company plans to boost gas output to reach 20 million cubic feet per day, he said, by rehabilitating old wells and cleaning already existing gas wells.

The chairman said the firm will continue working to attract a strategic partner to join efforts in gas production from Risheh gas field and exploration work in Safawi area. 

According to Abu Qura, the company’s revenues from selling gas in 2015 reached JD6.1 million, compared with JD6.5 million the year before. 

In 2014, British Petroleum ended its gas exploration operation in Jordan after unsatisfactory results on its second well in the country. 

The company, which was given an exploration and appraisal period of between three and five years in 2010, informed the government that it will not drill a third well, as the results on the second were not encouraging. 

AMMAN — Hisham Al Khaldi, a Saudi national, wrote on his Facebook page that he and his family will spend a 10-day spring holiday in Jordan.

Jordanian engineer Mahmoud Zu’bi, who is based in Jeddah, said he will also be heading back home to spend the vacation with his family. 

Khaldi and Zu’bi are among thousands of Saudis and Jordanian expatriates who are expected to come to the Kingdom during the spring break, which starts in Saudi Arabia on Thursday and continues through March 19. 

The annual 10-day spring holiday is known as the second semester break for schools in the Gulf kingdom. 

An official at the Jordan Customs Department (JCD) told The Jordan Times on Saturday that the agency is ready to receive “thousands” of vacationers coming from Saudi Arabia through the border crossings of Omari and Mudawarah. 

The official, who requested anonymity, said hundreds of cars usually cross into Jordan from Saudi Arabia at this time of the year, adding that most vacationers are residents of areas in the north of Saudi Arabia such as Tabuk, Hail and Arar, which are close to the Jordanian border.

“Many Jordanians working in Saudi Arabia also come to enjoy the beautiful spring in Jordan,” the JCD official said. 

According to Saudi media, Jordan is among the preferred destinations for Saudi holidaymakers, along with Dubai and Bahrain. 

Travellers from Saudi Arabia represent the largest number of tourists during summer, as official figures show that over 1 million visitors come to Jordan every year. 

According to JCD figures, 195,226 cars entered Jordan from Saudi Arabia in June and July of last year through the Omari and Mudawarah border crossings.   

AMMAN — The direct reason for the growing violence, terrorism and instability in the Middle East is the lack of a just solution to the Palestinian cause, Lower House Speaker Atef Tarawneh reiterated on Friday.

The speaker, who concluded his visit to Athens on Saturday, made the remarks during separate meetings with Greek Defence Minister  Panos Kammenos; Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias; the leader of the Union of Centrists Party, Vassilis Leventis; and the head of the New Democracy Party, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Having double standards in dealing with the Palestinian issue and not applying relevant international resolutions increase violence and provide young people with justifications to join terrorist organisations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, quoted Tarawneh as saying. The Greek officials highlighted the need to reach solutions to regional issues, especially in Palestine and Syria.

AMMAN — Jordanians who have returned from Yemen held a meeting on Saturday at the Professional Associations Complex, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

They urged the concerned authorities, particularly UN agencies, to shoulder their responsibilities and issue a UN resolution ensuring that Jordanian civilians whose interests were harmed by the events in Yemen shall receive compensation for their losses.