AMMAN, 22 October 2004 — The Jordanian authorities yesterday sent to trial before the State Security Court 20 Egyptians and Bengalis whom Amman said were arrested earlier this month while trying to infiltrate into Syrian territory from Jordan, according to an official statement. “The prosecutor general of the State Security Court, Capt. Hussein Al-Maani. has decided to refer to the court 20 defendants — eight Egyptians and 12 Bengalis —, who are charged with attempted infiltration into Syria from Jordanian territory,” the official news agency Petra said.
Petra did not give further details as to the indictment list, and it was not clear so far whether the defendants intended to infiltrate into Syria for work or for proceeding to Iraq later to join the resistance raging there against US-led multinational forces. The United States has repeatedly accused Syria of facilitating the infiltration of Muslim and Arab militants to Iraq for joining the Jordanian fugitive Abu Mussab Zarqawi, who is widely believed to be the mastermind of most of attacks against US troops and the allied Iraqi police force.
Meanwhile, Jordanian Prime Minister Faisal Al-Fayez will reshuffle his Cabinet in coming days to strengthen his hand in tackling a vocal Islamist opposition, while keeping pro-Western reformists in place, officials said yesterday. Several ministerial posts will be eradicated in the reshuffle expected to affect at least 10 ministries in the 20-member Cabinet, which includes three women ministers, officials said. They said pro-reformists would remain in office.
Officials say a new reshuffled Cabinet could be sworn in as early as tomorrow and will help Fayez counter the Islamist opposition with 17 seats in a tribal Parliament. Fayez, the son of a tribal leader with traditionally close ties to the monarchy, was appointed from within the palace entourage, unlike past premiers drawn from the civil service.
The expected revamp is seen as an attempt to revitalize the Cabinet after criticism by liberal Jordanians for its failure to make the sweeping political and economic liberalization changes they wanted in the new post-Iraq war climate. With rising bloodshed in neighboring Iraq and across the kingdom’s western borders, Fayez is worried Islamists will step up a campaign to incite attacks on its pro-Western polices and whip up anti-US sentiment that could encourage violence.
In another development, an official investigation into prison conditions in Jordan has warned against the use of physical disciplinary measures in the kingdom’s overcrowded jails, newspapers reported yesterday. The government set up the panel earlier this month following the death in September of an inmate during disturbances at Juweida Prison, south of Amman.
