Jordan using new antiterror
law to stifle dissent, democracy activists say
Since
September, dozens of political activists have been arrested. Jordan said Friday
that a Jordanian warplane had crashed in Syria and its pilot had been captured
by Islamic State, which claims to have downed the aircraft.
By Taylor Luck,
Correspondent DECEMBER 23, 2014
· 
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
AMMAN, JORDAN — Three years ago, Rani
Zawahreh was at the forefront of Jordan’s
Arab Spring-inspired pro-democracy movement, leading weekly protests demanding
an end to corruption and far-reaching political reforms curbing King Abdullah’s
powers.
Now standing shackled
in a prison-issued blue tunic before a military tribunal on terror charges
under a controversial new antiterror law, the 27-year-old engineer says
that very activism led to his singling out and “persecution” as a political
prisoner.
He is being tried for
“undermining the rule of law” with statements he made at an antigovernment
protest in early September.
“I have never threatened my country or the
government,” Mr. Zawahreh said at a trial at Jordan’s state security court
Monday, referring to his remarks during the protest. “I only threatened the
corrupt, who are now trying to use their power to get back at all of us
activists.”
According to court
and police records, Zawahreh is one of 50 Jordanian political
activists who have been detained by authorities as Jordan, watching nervously
at Islamic State gains in neighboring Iraq andSyria, widens its
crackdown on suspected IS supporters and members.
Jordanian officials
say that overall, the crackdown has netted more than 90 suspects and led to the
swift trial and imprisonment of 30 since mid-September.
However, as Jordanian
authorities widen their net, an increasing number of opposition leaders with no
overt links to IS or terror are being caught in the crackdown, including a
group of 10 pro-Palestinian activists, a leading labor leader, and the deputy
leader of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood –
the country’s largest opposition movement.
At the center of the
crackdown is the country’s strict antiterror law passed in June that
criminalizes forms of expression as small as a Tweet or Facebook post
deemed harmful to Jordan’s interests.
“We are sending a clear
message both within Jordan and abroad that the threat of the Islamic State and
extremism affects each and every one of us and statements in support will not
be tolerated,” says Mohammed Momani, Jordanian government spokesman and
minister of media affairs.
“This requires
vigilance and action on all fronts, and the law is a part of this.”
Yet by defining
terror as any act that “undermines Jordan” or “harms Jordan’s interests with a
foreign state” and extending its reach to social media and the Internet,
activists say, the law has given authorities and the country’s security court a
far-reaching new tool to hit back at the opposition, press, and even dissenting
citizens.
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