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AMMAN — A suspect in a drug case died of a heart attack on Sunday during a hearing before the State Security Court prosecutor general, the Public Security Department (PSD) announced Monday.

He was immediately transferred to hospital and, after that he was pronounced dead, his body was transferred to the forensic department to determine the cause of death.

A physician conducted an autopsy on the body, which was proved to be without traceable signs of violence, and attributed the cause of death to failure in the respiratory system and blood circulation.

The deceased was arrested during a raid in southern Amman last week, as PSD said.

AMMAN — Civil Defence Department (CDD) General Director Lt. Gen. Talal Kofahi and Australian Ambassador to Jordan Heidi Venamore discussed on Monday ways to strengthen cooperation and step up exchange of expertise between the two countries in the field of civilian protection.

Discussions also focused on developments of humanitarian services and relief assistance, mainly in terms of equipment used and human resources deployed to deal with accidents and natural disasters. The meeting was held to activate an agreement signed between the two countries in 2009 on bilateral cooperation in the fields of civil defence and self-protection.

AMMAN — The Court of Cassation has issued a ruling that allows insurance companies not to pay damages to those involved in accidents caused by reckless driving.

This applies to a case when a motorist crosses a red light and causes an accident, according to the recent court decision. The session was headed by Judicial Council President Hisham Tal, who also heads the Court of Cassation.

AMMAN — Global endeavours addressing the needs of Syrian refugees entering Europe must be accompanied with efforts to enhance the resilience of refugees and host communities in Syria’s neighbouring countries, an international relief official said Sunday.

In a statement e-mailed to The Jordan Times, the director of the Danish Refugee Council (DRF) Middle East and North Africa programme, Peter Klanso, cited the fact that over 4 million Syrians living as refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq are increasingly starting to move to Europe.

“This is not because people want to move, but because the quality of their asylum has deteriorated in the past year and they see no other option,” he said, adding that the funding crisis affecting the already fragile host economies is reaching a breaking point.

He cited increasing legal restrictions and limitations on self-support opportunities that are pushing refugees further into destitution, adding that the international community has failed to adequately respond to the Syrian crises in the Middle East region.

Meanwhile, the DRC welcomed the call made at a recent World Bank conference in Marseille, France, to enhance the international response to support Middle East countries hosting Syrian refugees in their development agenda.

“We maintain that a minimum of $4.53 billion is required to continue adequate programming to support refugees and host communities across Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq,” Klanso said.

During the high-level meeting, consensus was reached amongst the 60 decision-making, finance and development representatives from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Turkey and European countries on the urgent need to boost the capacity of countries and communities hosting refugees.

The international community committed to only $1.67 billion (37 per cent) of the total pledged funding needs of $4.53, according to the Regional Refugee & Resilience Plan (3RP) Syria Crisis progress report of 2015. 

Eighty-six per cent of Syrian refugees living outside of formal refugee camps in Jordan are living below the Jordanian poverty line and there is a growing need to address the “growing legal restrictions and limitations on self-support opportunities to reduce the risk of more refugees sliding into poverty”, the statement said. 

Furthermore, there is a need to review donor development cooperation policies and development aid architecture targeting middle-income countries such as Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, as aid policies do not qualify them for large-scale grants such as those by the World Bank to help them deal with the demographic and economic shocks of the crisis, and the growing financial burden of hosting refugees.

“Refugees that our staff encounter on a daily basis are continually raising concerns about not being able to access healthcare, education for their children and an income due to restrictions on entering the local labor market. Europe is increasingly being seen as the only alternative,” Klanso said.

The DRC is a humanitarian, non-governmental, nonprofit organisation founded in 1956 that works in more than 30 countries throughout the world. In the Middle East and North Africa region, it provides humanitarian care and assistance for displaced people in Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Libya and Lebanon.

AMMAN — The Ministry of Information and Communications Technology will announce the results of a study on the impact of doubling taxes on mobile subscriptions of government and operators’ revenues in early 2016.

The study is being conducted by a specialised government committee and is looking into how doubling the special tax on prepaid and post-paid mobile subscriptions, from 12 to 24 per cent, affected the sector since the decision was first made in 2013.

“We are committed to completing the study. We will also be able to figure out whether the government’s revenues generated from operators dropped,” said the ministry.

There was a drop in the ICT sector’s financial performance lately due to several local, regional and international factors, and the study will help the ministry take a decision as it will show the actual impact of the tax increase, Minister of Information and Communications Technology Majd Shweikeh recently told The Jordan Times.

Ihab Hinnawi, CEO of Umniah, a subsidiary of Bahrain’s Batelco, told The Jordan Times that there was considerable impact on operators’ revenues due to the increase in the special tax on mobile subscriptions.

“This is one of the main factors that has led to the decline in spending by customers and eventually the decline in operators’ and the government’s revenues,” said Hinnawi.

“We are looking forward to seeing the findings of the study, but we know that the sector has been negatively affected by the tax increase,” said Hinnawi.

In 2013, the government increased taxes on mobile phones from 8 to 16 per cent. The ongoing study is not looking into the impact of the increase of taxes on mobile devices.

According to the latest figures made available by the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission, mobile penetration reached 147 per cent at the end of March this year; there were 11.5 million active mobile subscriptions, 10.6 million of which were prepaid.

AMMAN — The Lower House on Sunday rejected the Senate’s amendments to the 2015 decentralisation bill, insisting on a law free of women’s quota in local governing bodies.

Last week, the Upper House rejected MPs’ amendments to the law which included no quota for women in governorate councils, insisting that 10 per cent of the elected governorate council seats be allocated for women.

Deputies themselves had initially approved a 15 per cent women’s quota, supporting a proposal by MP Wafaa Bani Mustafa in that regard, but they went back on their decision ahead of the final vote.

If the Senate insists on its amendments for the second time, then constitutionally the two Houses of Parliament have to meet in a joint session to resolve the matter in dispute. 

According to Article 92 of the Constitution: “Should either House twice reject any draft law and the other accept it, whether or not amended, both the Senate and the Chamber shall hold a joint meeting under the chairmanship of the president of the Senate to discuss the matters in dispute.”

The Senate and House will meet in a joint session as each side has offered no compromise on their amendments to the Independent Elections Commission (IEC) Law.

During a session last week, the Senate refused for the second time to endorse the Lower House’s changes to the IEC Law. The House had decided to include appointment of the agency’s employees in the oversight agency under the jurisdiction of the civil service by-law, insisting instead that recruitment at the IEC should be governed by a special by-law.

AMMAN — MPs were divided on Sunday over the 2015 parliamentary elections bill with some calling for sending it back to the government, while others described it as progressive and serves the reform process.

As customary, the House referred the proposed elections law to its Legal Committee for examination.

During Sunday’s House session, several MPs also cast doubt on the constitutionality of some articles of the new elections law, requesting the opinion of the Constitutional Court before the House begins its deliberations over the keystone reform law.

In a memorandum they signed, a group of 20 MPs questioned the constitutionality of leaving the number of electoral districts and parliamentary seats to the government to decide and include in a by-law.

Constitutional expert Mohammad Hammouri has explained that that dividing the Kingdom into electoral districts and defining parliamentary seats should be made clear in the law, not in a by-law issued by the government.

Citing Article 67 of the Constitution, Hammouri explained in a recent opinion piece that electoral districts and the number of parliamentary seats is a matter that “lies at the heart of citizens’ constitutional rights and, thus, should not be left for the government to decide on”.

As worded by the government, Paragraph A of Article 8 of the draft elections law reads: “The Kingdom will be divided into electoral districts for which 130 parliamentary seats will be allocated according to a by-law.”

According to Article 67 of the Constitution: “The Chamber of Deputies shall consist of members elected by secret ballot in a general direct election and in accordance with the provisions of an electoral law.”

Veteran MP Abdul Hadi Majali (National Current bloc) called on the government to withdraw the law from the House, arguing that the multi-member ticket at the governorate level is “just a replication of the one-person, one-vote system”.

Expressing dismay over the government’s statement that the new law is like the always-praised 1989 elections law, Majali said, “The government could have improved the national lists and not replaced them with proportional lists.”

Unveiling the law, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said that the closed proportional list at the national level was removed from the new law as “it was ruled as unconstitutional by the Higher Council for the Interpretation of the Constitution,” which was replaced by the Constitutional Court.

Under the 2012 law, on the basis of which the 2013 parliamentary elections were held, each voter was given two votes: one for a candidate at the district level and another for a closed proportional list that competed for 27 seats at the national level.

MP Khalil Atiyyeh commended the government for drafting such a “progressive” law, claiming that the new law will have its “immense” contributions to the country’s reform process.

Other deputies called for cancelling all quotas stipulated in the law, describing them as unconstitutional and against principles of equality and fair competition.

Salt MP Nidal Hiyari described the law as “disappointing”, calling for a nationwide dialogue on the reform-oriented bill before being endorsed by the House.

Some deputies called for allowing Jordanian expatriates to participate in parliamentary elections, while others called for toughening the penalties on the use of political money. 

Head of the Legal Committee MP Mustafa Amawi said that the panel would brainstorm over the draft law with all segments of society, including political parties, professional associations and civil society organisations.

Responding to MPs’ remarks, Ensour said that the law is now at the House and lawmakers can do whatever amendments they see necessary. “There is enough time to endorse the law and we have no fears from MPs’ decisions because they will show a high sense of responsiblity.”

Stressing that the quota system is “constitutional and positive”, Ensour said that there are 50 Jordanian missions abroad and allowing Jordanian expatriates to vote will be a costly process.

AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation on Sunday urged the public against using municipal water for cleaning gardens and pavements, warning that it would suspend water services to households found in violation of its instructions.

In a statement, the ministry called on people to ration the use of the water they receive under the water distribution programme and to only use it for domestic purposes.

Ministry of Water and Irrigation Spokesperson Omar Salameh said that in light of the ongoing hot weather, demand for water is increasing and pumping stations are operating around-the-clock to keep up with the “unprecedented demand for water”.

“Water consumption is on the rise because of the high temperatures and because the number of water consumers has increased. This is putting further strain on water resources and thus the ministry seeks to make sure that the water, which is precious in terms of its cost and availability, is not being wasted in watering gardens and cleaning pavements,” Salameh told The Jordan Times over the phone.

The ministry suggested that consumers use buckets for outdoor cleaning in order to conserve as much water as possible and warned against the use of hoses, noting that wasting water deprives other consumers from their water rights.

“Wasting water is illegal; therefore, the ministry will suspend water services from any household found in violation of our instructions. In addition, violators will be fined, while water services will not be restored until the subscriber signs a pledge to conserve water,” Salameh said.

The Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ) released in May a study that showed that only 5 per cent of domestic water is used for drinking and cooking purposes, while 45 per cent is used in bathrooms and for garden irrigation.

The study also showed that showers account for 30 per cent of the supplied domestic water used in bathrooms, while 20 per cent is used for washing clothes and cleaning houses.

The ministry said that wasting water is more common in urban areas; therefore, WAJ and the water companies will intensify inspection campaigns on households.

Jordan ranks as the world’s second water-poorest country, where water per capita is 88 per cent below the international water poverty line of 1,000 cubic metres annually.

The available water resources in Jordan offer 800-900 million cubic metres of water annually, according to the ministry, which it is said provides for the needs of only 3 million people, while the number of water users in Jordan now exceeds 10 million.

AMMAN — Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for an updated penal code that would “better protect human rights,” in a letter sent to Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour, which was released Wednesday. 

Currently there are 186 proposed amendments under review, according to a statement by HRW, which would change over 180 articles of Jordan’s current Penal Code, which has been in effect since 1960.

But according to the New York-based rights watchdog, the new amendments do not go far enough and should include articles that better protect free expression, peaceful assembly and women.  

“Jordan will take a step in the right direction if it changes the law to prevent rapists from getting away with their crimes,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said.

Whitson is referring to Article 308 in Jordan’s Penal Code, which states if a “perpetrator” marries the women he raped, the charges against him will be dropped. One of the proposed amendments would end this practice. 

The amendments also do not address provisions government officials have used to silence free expression and peaceful assembly, HRW said in the press release. 

Articles 118, 149 and 183 currently state a person can be detained and sentenced for “acts or writings the government did not authorise that expose Kingdom to danger”, “undermining the political regime or inciting opposition to it” or “abstaining from work” through strikes.

But the proposed amendments do include a provision to alternate methods of sentencing that could include community service instead of time behind bars. It does not specify which crimes or what type of community service the provision would include. 

Some amendments also categorises people with disabilities into a protected class and increase penalties for those who commit crimes against them like “negligence, rape, manslaughter, deprivation of liberty and financial deception”, the watchdog said. 

All proposed changes are under review by Jordan’s Legislation and Opinion Bureau, which is affiliated with the prime minister’s office. They must pass through both Houses of Parliament and receive His Majesty’s approval before they can go into effect. Whitson hopes the final product removes restrictions of basic freedoms, she said.   

“Constitutional guarantees that protect basic rights amount to little more than ink on paper if the authorities don’t get rid of Penal Code articles that are used to undermine them,” Whitson said. 

AMMAN — Polish Ambassador in Amman Krzysztof Bojko in cooperation with the honorary consul in Aqaba, Mazen Kawar, and the governor of Aqaba have inaugurated a teaching computer laboratory at Abdullah Bin Qais Al Harithy Primary School for Boys in Aqaba, an embassy statement released Sunday said.

This project is one of many social development projects for Jordanians financed by the Polish Development Cooperation Programme of the Polish ministry of foreign affairs. The project is the ninth carried out in Aqaba and the 15th at the Kingdom’s level, according to the statement.