Monday, March 28, 2011

AMMAN: Jordanians mourned Sunday the death of a 55-year-old man who died in the anti-government protests rocking the country for the past three months.
Khairi Saad was the first person to die in the Jordan’s protests, inspired by democracy uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world. He was killed Friday.

The government claimed Saad as a supporter, while the opposition and his brother, Saeed Saad, disputed that. “He was a follower of the Muslim Brotherhood,” said Saeed. The Brotherhood’s political arm, the Islamic Action Front, is Jordan’s largest opposition group.

Saeed said his brother was “brutally beaten” by police.
He said his brother joined anti-government protesters Thursday and camped out in an Amman square with the crowd. The clashes with government supporters erupted Friday.

“He was bringing food to the group when police beat him to death,” he said. He said the immediate cause of the death could have been heart failure as the government maintains, but it was “the result of police beating.”
“I saw blood on his face when we took him to the morgue for an autopsy,” he said. “There were clear marks of torture and beatings on his face.”
“The cause of the death was heart failure,” said chief forensic doctor Qais Qsous, after an autopsy.

He insisted that there were “no marks of beatings on his face and body.” More than 200 people attended Saad’s funeral Sunday, including the Islamic Action Front, their leftist allies and members of the March 24 youth movement.
Mourners chanted “God is greater,” “There is no God but God and the martyr is the beloved of God,” and “the prime minister is the enemy of God,” as they laid to rest Khairy Jamil Saad, in Sahab cemetery, southeast of Amman. The chants also included: “We sacrifice our souls and blood for you.”

The opposition said Saturday Prime Minister Marouf al-Bakhit, who only took office on Feb. 9, must resign.

“He is directly responsible for having police brutally attack unarmed civilians who wished to express their political views peacefully,” said IAF leader Hamza Mansour.

The opposition also wants Parliament to be dissolved and new elections to allow for picking a prime minister by popular vote instead of being appointed by the king.
A show of support for King Abdullah II came Sunday when tens of thousands of Jordanians thronged into the streets of the famed tourist city of Petra to greet him.

Abdullah stood outside his vehicle to salute cheering subjects, who waved Jordanian flags and chanted, “long live our beloved king.” In an apparent reference to Friday’s unrest, Abdullah urged national unity.
“We’re pursuing political reforms and we have nothing to fear,” he told a meeting in a Petra town hall, about 350 kilometers south of the capital.

In Amman, the 120-seat Chamber of Deputies – the only elected body in Jordan’s government – rejected calls by a small Jordanian group to strip the king of all his constitutional powers, leaving him as a figurehead. The Parliament said the call amounted to “political blackmail, which hampers reforms and creates tensions.”
After the session, Abdullah issued a royal decree ordering Parliament into a summer recess.

The IAF said Sunday that its website has been hacked.
“The content of the website has been replaced with slogans and statements, clearly showing that an official party is behind the hacking,” IAF chief Hamzah Mansur told AFP. He did not identify who hacked the website.

Calling themselves “JH-Team,” the hackers have posted a picture of King Abdullah, quoting a 2009 address of the monarch as saying that “those who talk about threatening Jordan, its identity, stability and national unity do not know the kingdom, its people and their history.” – AP, AFP