The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has recently released its Opinion on the case of Adam Al Natour, a 21-year-old Polish and Jordanian student who was sentenced to four years of imprisonment by the State Security Court after a flawed trial during which confessions he was forced to sign under torture were used against him. In the decision, the UN experts qualified his detention as "arbitrary" and requested the Jordanian authorities to immediately release him and to open an investigation into his allegations of torture.
On 12 August 2015, Adam Al Natour was helping his father in his garage in Al Bayader, Amman, when 15 members of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) – the country's intelligence agency – arrested him. He was then took to the GID premises where he was detained incommunicado for three weeks. When he was finally allowed to meet with his father, he reported having been beaten and subjected to electric shocks.

On 29 June 2016, Abdulmalik Mohammad Yousef Abdelsalam, 26-year-old Jordanian university student, was released from the premises of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) in Amman after having been secretly detained for four months, his family being kept unaware of his fate and whereabouts.

On 26 September 2016, Hatem Al Darawsheh, a 19-year-old Jordanian high school student, will face trial before the State Security Court for his alleged “support to a terrorist organisation”, based on statements extracted under torture during his interrogation by officers of the General Intelligence Directorate (GID). Concerned over such abuses, Alkarama sent al Darawsheh’s case to Ben Emmerson, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism (SRCT), asking him to urgently intervene with the Jordanian authorities to ask for Al Darawsheh’s release and drop all charges against him.

On 6 September 2016, Amjad Qourshah was released from Jweida prison after almost three months of detention without due process. Concerned over the fact that Qourshah was held in detention solely for having criticized Jordan's participation to the international coalition against the Islamic State (IS) lead by the USA. On 15 July 2016, Alkarama had seized the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression (SR FRDX), David Kaye, asking him to urgently intervene with the Jordanian authorities to request his immediate release.

On 13 June 2016, Amjad Qourshah, 48-year old assistant professor in comparative religions at the University of Jordan and famous presenter in TV and radio shows, was arrested for "disturbing relations with a foreign country" for having posted a video online about two years ago criticising the participation of Jordan to the international coalition led by the USA against the Islamic State (IS). Concerned over the fact that Qourshah's detention is motivated solely by an act of free speech, on 15 July 2016, Alkarama sent his case to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression (FREEDEX) demanding him to call upon the Jordanian authorities to immediately release him.

On 15 February 2016, 21 year-old student Adam Al Natour, a Polish and Jordanian binational, was sentenced to four years in prison by the State Security Court after a flawed trial during which confessions he was forced to sign under torture were used against him. Concerned over the arbitrariness of his detention, Alkarama raised his case with the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) to demand that the UN experts call upon the Jordanian authorities to release Adam Al Natour immediately.

On 17 May 2016, Professor Eyad Qunaibi was released from Muwaqqar II prison where he was detained for "incitement against the political regime," for a having published a Facebook post criticising, among others, his country's ties with Israel and the "westernisation of Jordanian society". The previous day, the State Security Court reduced Qunaibi's sentence from two to one year of imprisonment – which he had already served – and ordered his release. While welcoming Qunaibi's release, Alkarama regrets that the State Security Court failed to recognise that he was arbitrarily detained for having exercised his right to freedom of expression and did not acquit him.

On 27 February 2016, Abdulmalik Mohammad Yousef Abdelsalam, a 26 year-old Jordanian university student, after having served a prison sentence in Lebanon, was deported from Beirut to Amman Queen Alia International Airport, where he disappeared. Concerned over his fate, Alkarama sent an Urgent Appeal to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), in the hope that it will help shed light on his whereabouts.

Jordanian Police arrested Mahdi Suleiman, 57-year-old, on 18 February 2016, in front of the Israeli Embassy in Amman, while he was peacefully protesting against the arbitrary detention of Palestinians by the Israeli authorities, including his son, Mohammed Mahdi Saleh Suleiman, who was arrested in 2013 at the age of 16, tortured and later sentenced by a military court to 15 years in prison for “attempting to kill Israeli settlers by means of throwing stones” following an unfair trial.

The Jordan National Centre for Human Rights (JNCHR)'s review for its reaccreditation to the International Coordinating Committee of National Human Rights Institutions for the Protection of Human Rights (ICC-NHRI) was deferred to the fall session of 2016. The JNCHR has indeed proposed amendments to its enabling law which may have a considerable impact on its compliance with the Paris Principles − a set of international standards relating to the status of NHRIs upon which the assessment for the reaccreditation is made. This is what emerges from the report of the Sub-Committee on Accreditation (SCA) of the ICC for its November 2015 session, published on 26 January 2016. Alkarama, which had called upon the ICC to grant the JNCHR with a "B" status to mark its lack of compliance with international standards, welcomes this initiative and calls upon the authorities to allow the JNCHR to undertake reforms in order to guarantee its impartiality and effectiveness.