AMMAN, Aug 10: Jordan signed a deal with Britain on Wednesday that enables British courts to deport Jordanians who incite or condone acts of terrorism in preaching or writing.
Under the agreement, Jordan would have to guarantee a deportee would not be tortured or otherwise mistreated at home and would not face the death penalty.
The agreement signed in Amman by British embassy officials and Jordanian Interior Minister Awni Yarfas is part of Britain’s sweeping anti-terror plans after London bombings on July 7 which killed 52 people along with the four bombers.
“The agreement guarantees the civil rights of individuals under existing Jordanian laws and the international human rights conventions,” Yarfas told reporters at the signing ceremony.
Britain’s plans include powers to expel foreign nationals who incite terrorism, shut down mosques breeding terrorism and blacklist clerics, websites and bookshops.
It hopes to agree similar arrangements with other countries.
One cleric who has come under fire for his sermons is Abu Qatada, a Jordanian-Palestinian, who has been convicted in absentia in Jordan for alleged bomb plots there.
British authorities say 18 videotapes of his sermons were found in an apartment in Germany used by three of the hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.
British courts must first rule on any deportation.
Jordan’s human rights groups, independent politicians and the powerful mainstream Islamist party with parliamentary seats denounced the accord, saying Amman should not back Britain’s sweeping anti-terror laws that were unpopular in Jordan.
“This shows that Jordan is supporting Britain and we should not acquiesce in these moves but rather confront them by condemnation. People do not support violations of human rights,” Sheikh Hamza Mansour, head of the Islamic Action Front, told Reuters.
Mansour criticised the measures, saying they would infringe the legal rights of any deportees who would face trial in a Jordanian military court that human rights activists say already has no legal safeguards.
“The British authorities are acting hysterically these days after the bombings and are abandoning the democratic values they have always said they proudly upheld,” Mansour said.
Mamdouh al-Abbadi, deputy speaker of parliament, said the victims of the new British policies would be Muslims and Arabs who enjoyed political asylum in Britain.
“The mother of democracies is now giving up its principles to get rid of extremist Arabs who long enjoyed sanctuary to express their views and deporting them to their countries to get jailed there,” Abbadi said.
International human rights activists including Amnesty International have criticised Jordan for ill treatment of both political and criminal suspects and say this is facilitated by detaining them incommunicado for long periods before trial.
Some lawyers also cite a rise in reported cases of physical humiliation and degrading treatment in prisons.
Jordan denies there are systematic violations of prisoners’ rights and that torture is used in its jails.—Reuters
