Jordan urged to free student accused of insulting the king



AMMAN- Human Rights Watch on Friday called on Jordan to free a student arrested in July and accused of insulting King Abdullah II.
"Jordan’s military prosecutor at the State Security Court should immediately order the release of Hatim al-Shuli, a university student, and rescind charges against him," the US-based rights group said in a statement received by AFP.



It said Shuli, a journalism student at Irbid University, was arrested on July 25 and charged three days later with lese majeste "and causing national strife, over a poem he denies writing that criticised the king," it said.
"The military prosecutor has since renewed orders for al-Shuli’s detention and denied his petitions for bail," HRW said.
"Arrests for things like writing poems unfortunately are regular occurrences in Jordan," said Christoph Wilcke, senior Middle East researcher at the rights group.
"It’s about time Jordan got rid of laws that criminalise peaceful criticism of its rulers," he said.
"The main issue here is not even whether Hatim al-Shuli wrote this poem. The main issue is that Jordanian officials see nothing wrong with treating someone who writes a poem as a national security threat," Wilcke added.
A conviction for lese majeste in Jordan can result in a penalty of between one and three years in prison.
In June last year, a Jordanian court jailed poet Islam Samhan for a year for a collection of poems deemed blasphemous, following complaints by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.
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Friday, September 3rd 2010
AFP
           


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