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13 March 2008
Jordan: M. Issam Al Uteibi (Sheikh AlMaqdisi) liberated on March 12, 2008
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AlKarama for Human Rights, March 13, 2008
AlKarama has learned that Mr. Issam Al-Uteibi has been released on March 12, 2008. Arrested on Nov. 28, 2002, he was kept in detention without legal process and despite a judgement of acquittal on 27 December 2004. To protest against this situation, he started a hunger strike on February 4, 2008. The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, sought by AlKarama had issued an opinion in which he considered his detention as being arbitrary.
Reminder
Mr. Mohamed Tahar Issam Al Barqaoui AL UTEIBI, born on 07 March 1959 in Barqa, a writer and theologian known in Jordan and the Arab world, was arrested on November 28, 2002 with 11 other people, on charges of "conspiracy to commit terrorist acts". The arrest was made as a result of public statements he made through the media.
Tried by the State Security Court, he was acquitted on December 27, 2004. However, he has not been released but detained again 06 months in solitary confinement from 27 December 2004 to 28 June 2005, during which time he was tortured several times.
Released on the latter date, he gave an interview to the AlJazeera satellite channel on 04 July 2005 in which his expressed his condemnation of the American military occupation in Iraq. He was arrested again the following day, on July 05, 2005. Since then, he has never been tried and their most basic rights have been violated.
He has been held in solitary confinement for nearly a year and tortured on numerous occasions and he has been deprived of his right to choose a lawyer of his choice and that of challenging the legality of his detention.
The opinion of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was notified to the Jordanian government of Jordan who was invited to take the necessary steps to remedy to the situation of Mr. Al Uteibi.
However, and despite, or may be because, of this procedure, the treatment of Mr. Al Uteibi has considerably tightened during the month of January this year, which is why he started an indefinite hunger strike on 04 February 2008.
AlKarama had sent several communications (press releases of April 17, 2007 and June 7, 2007) to United Nations organs and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had issued at its last session in November 2007 an opinion asserting that his detention was arbitrary (press release of January 15, 2008)
Tried by the State Security Court, he was acquitted on December 27, 2004. However, he has not been released but detained again 06 months in solitary confinement from 27 December 2004 to 28 June 2005, during which time he was tortured several times.
Released on the latter date, he gave an interview to the AlJazeera satellite channel on 04 July 2005 in which his expressed his condemnation of the American military occupation in Iraq. He was arrested again the following day, on July 05, 2005. Since then, he has never been tried and their most basic rights have been violated.
He has been held in solitary confinement for nearly a year and tortured on numerous occasions and he has been deprived of his right to choose a lawyer of his choice and that of challenging the legality of his detention.
The opinion of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was notified to the Jordanian government of Jordan who was invited to take the necessary steps to remedy to the situation of Mr. Al Uteibi.
However, and despite, or may be because, of this procedure, the treatment of Mr. Al Uteibi has considerably tightened during the month of January this year, which is why he started an indefinite hunger strike on 04 February 2008.
AlKarama had sent several communications (press releases of April 17, 2007 and June 7, 2007) to United Nations organs and the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention had issued at its last session in November 2007 an opinion asserting that his detention was arbitrary (press release of January 15, 2008)
