They chanted slogans and raised placards urging King Abdallah to pardon their jailed relatives.

One of the placards read "the place of those who fight the Zionists should not be jails." The slogan referred to Islamists jailed after they were condemned by the State Security Court for plotting attacks against Israeli targets.

Scores of Jordanian Islamists were also found guilty by the tribunal for plotting to fight US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least 27 Islamic prisoners at Swaqa prison, 50 kilometers south of Amman, were on Tuesday on hunger strike to urge the government to give them freedom, according to the spokesman of the Public Security Directorate, Maj. Mohammad Khatib.

Hundreds of laborers were also involved in a separate demonstration in front of the Parliament Tuesday to demand investigation into cases of corruption inside the country’s General Workers Union (GWU), eye witnesses said.