US embassy cable - 05AMMAN6468

UNCLAS AMMAN 006468 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, PHUM, PTER, ASEC, JO 
SUBJECT: JORDANIAN PRISON HUNGER STRIKES END 
 
REF: AMMAN 4529 
 
1. Summary. Complaining of slow-moving court proceedings in 
terrorism cases, inmates began a hunger strike July 12 that 
spread to include, at its peak, 56 prisoners in three 
Jordanian prisons. By August 5, all of the protesters had 
ended their strikes. End Summary. 
 
2. On July 12, five inmates at Qafqafa Correctional and 
Rehabilitation Center in the north of Jordan began a hunger 
strike to protest against the alleged slowness of the court 
system to issue verdicts in their cases. The five were part 
of a group of nine who were convicted by the State Security 
Court (SSC) in September 2000 for plotting to attack Israeli 
and Western tourists in Jordan. The group had originally 
received sentences ranging from seven years to the death 
penalty, but, according the Jordan Times, their cases have 
been reviewed and their convictions overturned three times by 
the Court of Cassation. Each time the Cassation court ruled 
that some of the charges were covered by a 1999 royal 
amnesty. However, in April 2005 the SSC upheld its previous 
rulings, stating that the "final and decisive phases" of the 
plot were hatched after the amnesty was issued. 
 
3. By July 17, seventeen inmates were engaged in the Qafqafa 
hunger strike, including Mohammad Shalabi, also known as Abu 
Sayyaf, who is blamed by the GOJ for inciting an uprising in 
Ma'an in 2002 that left six people dead (reftel). The 
following day, July 18, two inmates at Swaqa prison started a 
similar strike to protest their prolonged detentions without 
final disposition of their cases. Jamal Degheidi, one of the 
two Swaqa strikers, had been imprisoned for 14 months on a 
state-security related charge, according to press reports. 
Additionally, 28 inmates at the Juweidah Correctional and 
Rehabilitation Center staged a one-day hunger strike to 
express solidarity with the Qafqafa prisoners. 
 
4. On July 25, the Qafqafa strike ended when the director of 
the Correctional Centres Administration, Colonel Saad Ajrami, 
and Qafqafa warden Colonel Hani Hiyari promised the inmates 
that their demands would be conveyed to the judicial 
authorities. The two officers then had a meal with the 
prisoners. The hunger strike at Swaqa prison continued, 
however, peaking at 11 inmates. By July 31, seven Swaqa 
inmates were still protesting what they claimed were 
unreasonably protracted judicial procedures. Five of these 
seven gave up their protest over the next few days, and the 
last two were persuaded to end their hunger strike on August 
5 after Ajrami assured them that their demands would be also 
be relayed to the appropriate authorities. 
HALE