Jordan Labor Watch - Morad Qutqut
When Rams Al-Batran, a teacher and trade union activity, carried out a peaceful one-man march in front of the Irbid Teachers’ Union Branch towards the headquarters of the Amman Union Branch last Monday, he did not know it would lead to his arrest.
Al-Batran marched in solidarity with his fellow teachers, who have been referred to early retirement as punishment for their union activism, intending to bring awareness to their case. However, as Al-Batran began his journey, the security services detained him for hours, and eventually released him on bail to report to the local police department in order to be presented to Irbid's governor.
His plight did not end there. When Al-Batran was presented to the governor of Irbid, last Tuesday, he was asked to sign a pledge to abandon his march. When Al-Batran refused, the governor's deputy, Qablan al-Sharif, decided to administratively detain him at the "Bab al-Hawa" prison under the Crime Prevention Act.
The lawyer representing the Jordan Teacher’s Union, Bassam Freihat, said that there was no legal justification for using the Crime Prevention Act to detain Rams al-Batran, as his actions were not in violation of the law. As such, the administrator’s decision to apply the Crime Prevention Act was arbitrary.
In his statement to Jordan Labor Watch, Freihat explained that this law is intended to be used with those who have prior criminal convictions who are suspected of plotting a crime. Administratively detaining labor rights activists or political activists under the Crime Prevention Act is a violation of the law.
The Crime Prevention Act No. 7 of 1954 grants the Administrative Governor the power to “bind with a pledge”, detain, or otherwise restrict the freedom of any person under his jurisdiction “if [the Governor] deems that there are sufficient reasons to take the necessary procedures.” According to Article 3 of the Act, this applies to those who are “caught in a public or private place in circumstances that may lead the governor to consider that this person was about to commit a crime or assist in committing it,” an accomplice to “robbery or theft,” and who, if remaining at liberty, “would constitute a danger to the people.”
In reality, the law gives governors almost unlimited power to arbitrarily detain any individual - even if they have not committed a crime. There are more than 10,000 new cases of administrative detention each year in Jordan. According to the National Center for Human Rights, 20% of all Jordanian inmates are administrative detainees.
Article 15 of the Jordanian Constitution provides that the Government shall guarantee the freedom of opinion, as every Jordanian is free to express his opinion by speech, in writing, or by means of photographic representation and other forms of expression, provided that such does not violate the law.