Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Jordan.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Jordan. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the courtroom. Perhaps your paper might focus on some of
the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures, starvation, thirst,
sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing water. On the other hand, you might choose to
write about the people acting in an official capacity who perpetrate such
cruelty. There is a lot to the subject
of Torture by Authorities. Scan other
countries as well as this one. Draw
comparisons between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Jordan U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor,
30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/jordan/
[accessed 26 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL,
INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The constitution
bans torture, including psychological harm, by public officials and provides
penalties up to three years’ imprisonment for its use, with a penalty of up
to 15 years if serious injury occurs. While the law prohibits such practices,
international and local NGOs reported incidents of torture and mistreatment
in police and security detention centers. Human rights lawyers found the
penal code ambiguous and supported amendments to define “torture” more
clearly and strengthen sentencing guidelines. According to government
officials, all reported allegations of abuse in custody were thoroughly
investigated, but human rights NGOs questioned the impartiality of these
investigations. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS Conditions in the
country’s 18 prisons varied: Old facilities had poor conditions while new
prisons met international standards. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/jordan/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 17 May
2020] F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES? Torture and other
mistreatment in custody are common and rarely draw serious penalties. Prison
conditions are generally poor, and inmates reportedly suffer from beatings
and other abuse by guards. Rights
group says five died under torture in Jordan detention centres Jordan, Middle East,
News, 27 November 2018 [accessed 1 December
2018] Jordanian Adaleh Centre for Human Rights Studies said as many as
five persons have died due to “systematic” torture
in the kingdom’s detention centres. “Torture is
systematically carried out in Jordan through a constant and repeated context.
Physical and psychological torture is used as a means of investigation in
security services such as the Criminal Investigation Department and the
Anti-Narcotics Department to obtain confessions” the centre’s
executive director, Assem Rababa’a
told a press conference on Monday. Arabic
press review: Jordanian security forces accused of systematic torture Human
rights centre says torture systematic in Jordan Mohammad Ayesh, Middle East Eye, 26 November 2018 www.middleeasteye.net/news/arabic-press-review-jordanian-security-forces-accused-systematic-torture-1623451166 [accessed 27
November 2018] In its second
annual report, Adaleh Centre for Human Rights said:
"Torture in Jordan is practised systematically
and continuously. Physical and psychological abuse is continuously resorted
to so as to extract and obtain information." Lawyer Salem al-Mefleh, an Adaleh Centre member
responsible for following up on torture cases, said that 33 incidents have
taken place from 2013 to 2015, increasing to 80 cases in detention centres from 2016 to 2018, according to al-Quds al-Arabi. He added that
"the crimes of torture are surrounded with silence and take place inside
closed places in isolation from the outside world," noting that
"the most prominent difficulties in cases of torture occur during
investigations and trials, as the victims’ lawyers are prevented from having
a look into preliminary investigations." Center
for Victims of Torture Marks 10 Years of Healing in Jordan Center for Victims
of Torture, St. Paul, Minn., 8 Oct 2018 reliefweb.int/report/jordan/center-victims-torture-marks-10-years-healing-jordan [accessed 9 October
2018] The Center for
Victims of Torture (CVT) is marking 10 years of healing in Jordan, where the
organization has cared for thousands of refugee survivors of torture and war,
beginning with Iraqi clients and expanding over the years as conflicts and
crises emerged in the region and beyond. CVT Jordan has steadily worked over
these years to meet increasing demand for holistic, rehabilitative care for
refugee torture survivors, especially as the Syrian conflict began and
continues to devastate communities today. Since 2008, CVT Jordan has extended
rehabilitative care to more than 7,400 refugee survivors of torture and war. Torture
at Gitmo? Blame Jordan! Peter Lee, Counter
Punch Weekend Edition, May 1-3, 2015 www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/01/torture-at-gitmo-blame-jordan/ [accessed 10 May
2015] Jordanians practice
torture on a daily basis, but they need a reasonable suspicion to do so. They don’t just jump on anybody and start
to torture him…In the beginning the Jordanians were seen as a potential
associate for doing the dirty work; the fact that Jordanians widely use
torture as a means to facilitate interrogation seemed to impress the American
authorities. But there was a problem:
the Jordanians don’t take anybody and torture him; they must have reason to
practice heavy physical torture…I learned later from the Jordanian detainee
in GTMO who spent fifty days in the same prison…that they do have…painful
methods of torture, like hanging detainees from their hands and feet and
beating them for hours, and depriving them from sleep for days until they
lose their minds. “In Jordan they don’t torture unless they
have evidence…The torture starts around midnight and finishes around
dawn. Everybody takes part, the prison
director, the interrogators, and the guards…” In February 2002,
the director of Jordan’s Antiterrorism Department was the subject of an
assassination plot…The investigation led to a suspect, but the secret police
couldn’t find him…The peaceful brother was to be taken as a pawn and tortured
until his brother turned himself in.
Special Forces were sent out, arerested the
innocent boy in a crowded place, and beat him beyond belief…The boy was taken
to the prison and tortured every day by his interrogator. “I don’t care how long it takes, I am going
to keep torturing you until your brother turns himself in,” his interrogator
said. Human
Rights Watch World Report 2015 - Events of 2014 Human Rights Watch,
29 January 2015 www.hrw.org/world-report/2015/...
or
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/wr2015_web.pdf [accessed 18 March
2015] JORDAN TORTURE, POLICE
VIOLENCE, AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION - Perpetrators of torture or other
ill-treatment continued to enjoy near-total impunity due to the authorities’
reliance on special police prosecutors and judges to investigate allegations
against, prosecute, and try fellow officers. At the Police Court, where many
such cases are heard, two out of three sitting judges are serving police
officers appointed by the police. To date, no police or intelligence officer
has ever been convicted of torture under article 208 of the penal code. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/JOR/2 (2010) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/jordan2010.html [accessed 2 March
2013] Impunity for acts
of torture and ill-treatment 10. The Committee is
deeply concerned at the numerous, consistent and credible allegations of a
widespread and routine practice of torture and ill-treatment of detainees in
detention facilities, including facilities under the control of the General
Intelligence Directorate and the Criminal Investigations Department. The
Committee is further concerned that such allegations are seldom investigated
and prosecuted and that there would appear to be a climate of impunity
resulting in the lack of meaningful disciplinary action or criminal
prosecution against persons of authority accused of acts specified in the
Convention. The Committee is particularly concerned that while no official
has ever been prosecuted for having committed torture under article 208 of
the Penal Code, there have been prosecutions under article 37 of the Public
Security Law of 1965 as the lex specialis, calling solely for disciplinary
action. The Committee is further concerned that article 61 of the Penal Code
stipulates that a person shall bear no criminal responsibility for acts
performed in accordance with orders given by someone of higher rank. (arts.
2, 4, 12 and 16) As a matter of
urgency, the State party should take immediate and effective measures to
prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment throughout the country, including
announcement of a policy that would produce measurable results in the
eradication of torture and ill-treatment by State officials. The State party
should ensure that all allegations of torture and ill-treatment are
investigated promptly, effectively and impartially, and that the perpetrators
are prosecuted and convicted in accordance with the gravity of the acts, as
required by article 4 of the Convention. Furthermore, the
State party should amend its legislation in order to explicitly provide that
an order from a superior officer or a public authority may not be invoked as
a justification of torture. Complaints and
prompt and impartial investigations 11. The Committee
expresses its concern at the high number of complaints of torture and
ill-treatment by law enforcement, security, intelligence and prison
officials, the limited number of investigations carried out by the State
party in such cases, and the very limited number of convictions in those
cases which are investigated. Additionally, the Committee is concerned that
the existing investigative bodies lack the necessary independence to review
individual complaints about misconduct committed by security officials. The
Committee also regrets the lack of detailed information, including statistics,
on the number of complaints of torture and ill-treatment and results of all
the proceedings, both at the penal and disciplinary levels, and their
outcomes. (arts. 11, 12 and 16) The State party
should strengthen its measures to ensure prompt, thorough, impartial and
effective investigations into all allegations of torture and ill-treatment of
convicted prisoners and detainees and to bring to justice law enforcement,
security, intelligence, and prison officials who carried out, ordered or
acquiesced in such practices. In particular, such investigations should be
undertaken by an independent body. In connection with prima facie cases of
torture and ill-treatment, the alleged suspect should as a rule be subject to
suspension or reassignment during the process of investigation, to avoid any
risk that he or she might impede the investigation, or continue any reported
impermissible actions in breach of the Convention. The State party
should prosecute the perpetrators and impose appropriate sentences on those
convicted in order to ensure that State officials who are responsible for
violations prohibited by the Convention are held accountable. On the Way
Towards Self Determination: Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Speech and
Electoral Self Determination - A Fieldwork on Human Rights in Jordan Anna Pascale, 26
April 2012 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2097922 [accessed 26 August
2016] ABSTRACT - Even if from King Abdullah on down,
Jordanian officials pride themselves on a better human rights record than
their neighbours, the kingdom has barely advanced
rights protections over the past decade, and their issue continues to be a
matter of concern for many in and outside of the country. This work
represents the culmination of a research project aiming to provide
instruments which allow for the evaluation of the actions undertaken in
Jordan, in order to promote human rights respect and, then, human
development. In the course of fieldwork in Jordan, information was collected
by interviewing, in each Jordanian governorate, international and local
organizations engaged in different fields of human rights; afterwards, the
data were processed so to obtain synthetic measures. The result was a
set of six meaningful indicators (pertaining to the human rights dimensions
of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, electoral self
determination, freedom of movement, freedom of association and
workers’ rights), aggregated into a final composite index. Such
multidimensional indicators – inspired by the CIRI Empowerment Rights Index
-allow for a comparison among the levels of fulfilment of human rights
achieved by different geographic areas in the country and facilitate the
suggestion of public policies useful for the complementary promotion of human
rights and human development in the country. Human Rights In
Jordan Human Rights Watch www.hrw.org/node/104212 [accessed 3 February
2013] From King Abdullah on
down, Jordanian officials pride themselves on a better rights record than
their neighbors, but the kingdom has barely advanced rights protections over
the past decade. Expression and association remain tightly circumscribed in
law and practice, and security services enjoy a large degree of impunity for
arbitrary arrests and torture, as do employers for widespread abuses against
migrant domestic workers. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 TORTURE AND OTHER
ILL-TREATMENT
- There were reports of torture and other ill-treatment of security suspects
and people detained, some incommunicado for prolonged periods, following
pro-reform protests. Eleven men arrested
on 21 October for allegedly planning violent attacks in Amman were held by
the GID in Amman in almost continuous incommunicado detention without access
to lawyers or family for more than two months. Most of them claimed to have
“confessed” under torture. Rami al-Sehwal was reportedly stripped naked, tied and beaten
over two days by police and GID officers who sought to “teach” him and 12
other men “a lesson” after they were detained at a peaceful protest in Amman
on 30 March. All 13 were released without charge Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=jordan+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 5 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Freedom House
Country Report - Political Rights: 5 Civil Liberties: 5 Status: Partly Free 2009 Edition www.freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2009/jordan [accessed 3 February
2013] LONG
URL ç 2009 Country Reports begin on Page 21 [accessed 13 May
2020] The judiciary is
subject to executive influence through the Justice Ministry and the Higher
Judiciary Council, most of whose members are appointed by the king. While
most trials in civilian courts are open and procedurally sound, the State
Security Court (SSC) may close its proceedings to the public. A temporary law
promulgated in 2001 allows the prime minister to refer any case to the SSC
and denies the right of appeal to people convicted by the SSC of
misdemeanors. Jordanian citizens
enjoy little protection from arbitrary arrest and detention. Under the
constitution, suspects may be detained for up to 48 hours without a warrant
and up to 10 days without formal charges being filed; courts routinely grant
prosecutors 15-day extensions of this deadline. Even these protections are
denied to suspects referred to the SSC, who are often held in lengthy
pretrial detention and refused access to legal counsel until just before
trial. The UN Special Rapporteur on torture found in 2006 that “torture is
systematically practiced” by the General Intelligence Department (GID), which
interrogates suspects to obtain confessions in SSC cases. Nearly every
defendant tried by the SSC has claimed they were tortured. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61691.htm [accessed 3 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61691.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, police and security forces allegedly
abused detainees during detention and interrogation and reportedly also used
torture. Allegations of torture were difficult to verify because the police
and security officials frequently denied detainees timely access to lawyers.
The most frequently reported methods of torture included beating, sleep
deprivation, extended solitary confinement, and physical suspension.
Defendants charged with security-related offenses before the State Security
Court claimed they were tortured to obtain confessions and claimed to have
been subjected to physical and psychological abuse while in detention. Government
officials denied many allegations of detainee abuse, pointing out that many
defendants claimed abuse in order to shift the focus away from their crimes. During
the year defendants in nearly every case before the Security Court alleged
that they were tortured while in custody. At times the courts requested
prison administrators to treat inmates in accordance with the law. A December
26 report issued by the National Center for Human Rights (NCHR) reported on
allegations of mistreatment at prisons and detention centers, including that
inmates were subjected to beatings. NCHR's May 31
report, The State of Human Rights in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, stated that
the court system does not provide sufficient guarantees to prevent torture
and other forms of abuse at the hands of the authorities. In May, 15 men
accused of planning terrorist attacks in the country claimed that their
confessions were extracted under torture. The main defendant in that case,
Abed Shehadeh Tahawi,
claimed that security forces fabricated the case against him because he is an
Islamist preacher. One of the defense lawyers claimed that the security
forces used chemicals to hide evidence of torture. He also claimed that the
prosecution did not read the defendants their indictment sheet when they were
brought in for questioning. In July four
Islamist defendants standing trial for plotting to attack liquor stores
retracted their confessions, claiming they were extracted under torture.
Their attorneys claimed the men were denied their right to have an attorney
present during their interrogations. Also in July relatives of seven men
standing trial for plotting attacks on tourists testified that they believed
the defendants had been tortured, because their imprisoned relatives looked
weak and had told them they had confessed under duress. Affiliates of
fugitive Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, convicted in
absentia in April 2004 of killing Lawrence Foley in 2002 (see section 1.a.),
claimed their confessions were extracted under duress. Muammar Jaghbir, who was sentenced to death in absentia for
killing Foley and subsequently apprehended and retried, was detained by the
security forces for six months of interrogation before appearing in court.
Zarqawi's nephew, Omar al-Khalayleh, who was
sentenced in May 2004 with two others for plotting against foreign tourists,
also claimed torture during his trial. During his trial in
2004, detained al-Zarqawi accomplice Miqdad al-Dabbas claimed that his confession was made under duress.
He was sentenced in April to 15 years in prison for plotting attacks against
Jordan's embassy in Baghdad. Human rights
activists reported a number of cases of beatings and other abuses of individuals
in police custody during the year. Human rights activists also claimed that
detainees were often held incommunicado for up to two months after arrest. In December Human
Rights Watch sent a letter to the prime minister asking him to investigate an
apparent miscarriage of justice, in which two people were convicted in the
murder of Najih Khayyat.
The first defendant, Bilal Musa, confessed to killing 1 man in self defense, and later to killing Najih
Khayyat and 9 others; he claimed that the latter 10
confessions were extracted under duress. Musa was executed in 2000. Later, Zuhair Khatib confessed to
killing Najih Khayyat. On
May 15, the same judges who tried and convicted Musa sentenced Zuhair Khatib to death for Khayyat's murder. The court subsequently reversed its
verdict in Khatib's case and exonerated him. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, " Torture by Police, Forced
Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st
Century- Jordan ", http://gvnet.com/torture/Jordan.htm, [accessed
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