Human rights groups call on government to stop torture

On the eve of a meeting between US President George Bush and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, rights activists have urged Amman to take steps to end torture, especially that allegedly committed by the General Intelligence Department (GID), the institution responsible for intelligence services in the kingdom. “Jordanian suspects should have the right to receive legal assistance from the first minute they go under detention,” Nizam Assaf, the director of the Amman Centre for Human Rights Studies (ACHRS) said. “Detention periods should not exceed 24 hours either,” he added. Under Jordanian law, security forces can detain suspects of crimes under the jurisdiction of the State Security Court (SSC) for seven days without charge or access to a lawyer. In almost all cases investigated by international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW), alleged torture took place during these initial days of detention. "King Abdullah's reform agenda has won many accolades, but he has not tackled continued serious abuses such as torture," said Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa division at HRW. "Reform means not only changing laws but also holding abusers accountable," Stork added. The rights group has received a number of complaints from Jordanians who were subjected to torture or witnessed it at the hands of the GID. The GID holds suspects incommunicado and interrogates them in its own detention centre, contrary to specific recommendations made by the UN Committee against Torture, which monitors adherance to the Convention Against Torture. Jordan ratified the convention in 1991. While Jordan's government and parliament were discussing new legislation to expand media freedoms and political participation, King Abdullah's reform agenda had stopped short of addressing the deep flaws in Jordan's criminal justice system, said HRW. “Unfortunately, it seems that until now the human rights groups in Jordan have concentrated their efforts in lobbying for those other freedoms,” the ACHRS director added. Access to lawyers, inadmissibility of confessions obtained by torture, and the prosecution of rights violators are areas of Jordanian law and practice that the government should address urgently, according to HRW. "King Abdullah should order an independent investigation into Jordan's torture problem without delay," Stork added. "Political reforms won't mean much unless citizens can engage in peaceful political activity without fear of arrest and torture," he said.