HUMAN WRONGS WATCH

Human Wrongs Watch

By Abeer S. Abusaud* – Amman

The Amman government has re-submitted the controversial Crime Prevention Law to the Parliament for further discussion and eventual revision amidst strong protests by Jordanian human rights activists against its provisions and the mechanism for its approval.

**Petra, photo by Markv | Wikimedia Commons.

According to the Crime Prevention Law, Governors have the authority to issue warrants against citizens, arrest, interrogate and imprison them without a court order.

“The government wording of amendments to the law, and its approval by the Legal Committee were carried out without any participation from the National Centre for Human Rights”, according to the Centre’s media spokesperson, Mohammed Al Hilo.

The controversy over this law has been ongoing for many years now, as it has been enforced for the past 58 years without any modification.

“Flagrant Infringement”

Even though the Jordanian government insists on continuing to implement this law, and sees it as a “preventive” mechanism within the security context, rights activists contend that the powers granted to local governors are a “flagrant” infringement on the judiciary.

This Law was passed in 1954, and gives local governors the power to arrest, interrogate and imprison any citizen, who is suspected of being:

• found in a situation where a person is about to commit a criminal act or aid in committing it, or
• a person known to be a thief, or in possession of stolen property, or protecting thieves, or harbouring and/or helping conceal or dispose of stolen goods,
• a person whose presence outside jail is seen as a big threat to public safety.

Ultimate Power in the Wrong Hands

According to a report issued by the National Centre for Human Rights, “This Law lacks clear, specific and objective basis for the stipulated actions against Jordanian citizens, and is unfairly based on the local governor point of view”.

The report, released in 2009, critises the “loose” wording of the law, which gives local governors almost “absolute” powers, not only in terms of their own judgment on who receives the arrest warrant, but in deciding who to put in jail, for how long, type of release warranty, value and the sponsor.

A Major Violation to Human Rights

The amendments proposed by the government “are not enough,” according to lawyer Ribhi Elatewi, because “it did not get rid of loose wording, which gives the local governor the freedom to violate individual rights and hinder the activation of any judicial control over his practices.”

Elatewi stresses that the only judicial control over such practices can happen afterwards by challenging the governor’s decisions before the High Court of Justice in Amman. This, he says, is not very effective because of the loose language of the law, which makes the plaintive unable to prove the “arbitrary decision of the governor”.

This argument was rejected by Irbid Governor, Khaled Abu Zaid, who confirms that decisions to arrest citizens are not haphazard, “We work in the field, and we are more aware of the danger posed by persons with criminal records, who are loose in the streets, or who return to committing the same offences. So, the enforcement of this law is our only way to deter them”.

But Ababneh doesn’t agree with the Governor’s argument, asserting that there are existing legislations that have such “preventive”.

Limit the Powers of the Governors!

According to Ababneh, a flagrant example of such abuses was when a Governor decided to imprison an innocent citizen in a mental hospital, “This decision was taken in 1996, and if it weren’t over-ruled by the Supreme Court of Justice, the poor man would have died as a mental patient”.

Ababneh objects to the present situation, “What we see now is the encroachment of the “local clans” over the state’s power. Let us recall that such deeds did not exist in the seventies and eighties. Actually, the state’s power began eroding since mid-nineties”.

“We need to cease applying laws that violate the freedom of individuals”, Ababneh stresses that there is a need to “reword” the law, in order to limit the Governors’ powers.

“We Might All Become Victims of the Crime Prevention Law”

The culture of overriding the Judiciary by executive authorities is the main basis for putting such powers in the hands of local governors -he said- this creating a complacent culture for violating citizens’ rights guaranteed by the Jordanian Constitution.

“Such culture must be resisted strongly, simply because the offender is also a human being and a Jordanian citizen. If we approve, or disregard such violations, we will be unable to protect ourselves from becoming the victims of this transgression.”

*Abeer S. Abusaud is a Communication and Marketing expert with more than 30 years experience in Communication, Mass Media, and Advertising. She studied Political Sciences at Cairo University and started her career in the English Service of Qatar Radio, Doha, where she authored the first English language book on Qatari women “Qatari Women Past and Present” published by Longman, U.K. 1984. This article can be re-published, sourcing and linking to: Human Wrongs Watch

**Petra, photo by Markv http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Markv | Wikimedia Commons.

Copyright ©2012 Human Wrongs Watch

Posted on 23/01/2012 at 03:09 in Africa   |  RSS feed |   Reply   |   Trackback URL