The government on Monday said recent remarks by a Human Rights Watch (HRW) executive director on the detention of four Islamist MPs on charges of incitement were “insulting”. “Such remarks were insulting to a lot of Jordanians,” Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh told reporters yesterday at a weekly press briefing. “The Jordanian government needs no apology from HRW, but the families of the Amman bombings’ victims need apology letters from HRW Executive Director for Middle East and North Africa Sarah Leah Whitson.”Islamic Action Front (IAF) MPs Ali Abul Sukkar (Zarqa, Second District), Mohammad Abu Fares (Amman, Fifth District), Ibrahim Mashoukhi (Zarqa, First District) and Jaafar Hourani (Zarqa, Fourth District) were charged with “fuelling national discord and inciting sectarianism” after condoling the family of killed Al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Mussab Zarqawi and praising him as a “martyr” and a “holy warrior”.
In her statement on Saturday, Whitson said: “Expressing condolences to the family of a dead man, however murderous he might be, is not a crime. And it shouldn’t be grounds for prosecution. Nor should a dubious comment about an alleged terrorist leader, even by a member of Parliament, be considered incitement to violence. Going after these people is an unacceptable violation of their basic rights to free speech.” Judeh said he was surprised HRW considered the MPs’ comments as part of their “legitimate freedom of speech”.