Jordan Demonstrators Want Jailed Activists Free
Nearly 1,500 Jordanians demonstrated on Friday across the country to demand the release of 19 detained political activists charged with insulting the king, and also calling for reforms.
In the capital Amman, more than 400 Islamists and trade unionists held a sit-in near the University of Jordan to condemn corruption and the detention of the young activists.
"The country is being destroyed because reformists are jailed while the corrupt are protected," former MP Ahmad Kafawin of the powerful Muslim Brotherhood told demonstrators who chanted: "The people want to reform the regime."
In central Amman, some 300 members of youth movements marched from Al-Husseini mosque to the nearby city hall.
"We demand the authorities immediately free the activists. Do they deal with the corrupt the same way they treat those who call for reform?" said Mohammed Harasis, a spokesman for the youth movements.
"Our demonstrations to reform the regime are peaceful and we always abide by the law."
Hundreds of people staged similar demonstrations in the southern cities of Tafileh and Karak as well as at Zarqa and Irbid in the north, police said.
On Sunday, military prosecutors accused 13 activists of insulting the king and rioting following a demonstration outside the prime minister's office in Amman.
They were protesting the detention of six activists jailed last month on the same charges.
International human rights organizations as well as the Islamists and other groups have demanded the government release all of the detainees.
Jordanians have been protesting since January last year calling for sweeping political and economic reforms and an end to corruption.
Source: Agence France Presse
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