Jordan Times
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Lawmakers debate draft anti-terrorism law
Islamist and independent MPs expressed concern that the draft bill may be used to
suppress ‘peaceful’ political activities.
AMMAN — Parliamentarians Wednesday continued debating the controversial anti-terrorism law in a session that saw
Islamic Action Front (IAF) deputies end their boycott of the Lower House.
As yesterday’s session proceeded, lawmakers crossed swords with the government over the temporary credit information
law for the second consecutive session.
Parliamentarians demanded that the government provide further clarification on the proposed bill, with several
lawmakers casting doubt on whether an article of the law dealing with the establishment of a firm specialised
in credit information gathering “was constitutional.”
In response to the deputies concerns, Prime Minister Marouf Bakhit proposed to withdraw the temporary law and
draft a revised version.
As debate continued surrounding the draft anti-terrorism law, parliamentarians spent a whole hour discussing the
definition of terrorism as stated in the draft bill.
Lawmakers then approved the definition on recommendation from the House Legal Committee.
According to the draft law, terrorism is: “Every intentional action committed by any means that leads to killing
anyone or causing him physical harm or inflicting damages to public or private property... if the intention of that
action was to disturb public order and endanger public safety and security or impede the implementation of the law
or the Constitution.”
During the debate, Islamist and other independent MPs said they were concerned that the definition “was written in
loose language” and might be used as a tool to suppress “peaceful” political activities.
Some said they were also concerned that resistance movements in the region, including Hamas and some Iraqi groups,
could fall under the definition of terrorists.
In order to clarify this matter, deputies proposed inserting a clause to exempt these groups from prosecution.
Lower House Speaker Abdul Hadi Majali adjourned the session until the evening, which was later cancelled due to a
lack of quorum.
Two-thirds of the House’s 110 deputies are required to be present for the session to continue.
Several human rights activists recently called on the Kingdom’s lawmakers to reject the proposed bill, warning that
it would turn the Kingdom into a “police state.”
The draft grants authorities the power to detain any terror suspect for up to two weeks, which may be renewed without
the need of a court order.
Under the current Penal Code, suspects may be held for a period of 24 hours after which a court order is required
authorising further detention.
The draft anti-terrorism bill also contains measures to identify, prosecute and convict terrorists and provides law
enforcement and security agencies with powers to gather intelligence and prosecute suspected terrorists, including
placing individuals under tight surveillance, seizing financial assets and barring them from travel.
Jordan is the first Arab country to join the ranks of Western states in issuing an anti-terrorism bill. Several
countries, including the US, Canada, UK and Australia, have already drafted their own anti-terrorism legislation.
The proposed bill was announced by the government a week after the Nov. 9 bombings of three Amman hotels, which killed
60 people and injured around 100 others.
Al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for the attacks and named the suicide bombers as four Iraqis, one of them a
woman, whose explosive belt allegedly failed to detonate.
The woman, Sajida Rishawi, was arrested in Salt four days after the attacks and is currently being tried at the State
Security Court on charges of plotting terrorist acts and possessing explosives.
Yesterday’s session also saw lawmakers refer the draft amendment to the income tax law to the Financial Committee for
deliberation.
Several MPs took the podium to express their dissatisfaction over the draft legislation, claiming the proposed bill
had major loopholes as far as taxation on large firms and banks were concerned, calling for it to be rejected outright.
But their calls went unanswered after the majority voted in favour of referring it to the concerned committee.
“We will never have a draft law that satisfies everybody, but that does not mean we should reject it without discussion.
The Financial Committee can impose several changes and it is up to us to accept them or not,” said
Deputy Abdur- Ra’uf S. Rawabdeh.
Yesterday’s session also saw deputies from the IAF end their boycott.
The Islamist lawmakers boycotted Monday’s session in a display of anger after the appeals court upheld a ruling by
the military court to jail IAF deputies Mohammad Abu Fares and Ali Abul Sukkar in a trial described by the movement
as “politically motivated.”
The deputies were arrested on July 12 after paying their condolences to the family of slain Al Qaeda in Iraq leader
Abu Mussab Zarqawi. During the visit the lawmakers praised Zarqawi, who claimed responsibility for the Amman bombings,
as a martyr.
Zaki Bani Rusheid, secretary general of the IAF, confirmed to The Jordan Times yesterday that the prime minister had
promised them that he would “seek a pardon from His Majesty King Abdullah to free the deputies.”