VI. Abuse of Power

Human Rights Watch received and pursued two allegations that governorate officials had abused their powers by issuing administrative detention orders based on personal or tribal enmity between the official and the detainee.[47]

In one instance, a verbal dispute on a bus landed Ra’i’ Hurani in administrative detention, because the person he argued with turned out to be a Preventive Security officer. Hurani told Human Rights Watch that, after the argument, “I went home. The next day, I was arrested by the police. The police brought me to the governorate. An official there decided to detain me on a 5,000 dinar monetary guarantee.”[48] Hurani had been detained for six months at the time Human Rights Watch met him in Swaqa prison.

In Qafqafa prison, Nizar Sa’id told Human Rights Watch, “There is a personal family problem between me and the governor’s secretary, Sharif Nu’aim. The governor just had my brother Haitham administratively detained, even though he was able to meet the monetary guarantee. He’s now in the ’adawat room,” referring to a separate cell where prison authorities place persons they believe may be in danger of harm as a result of tribal or personal revenge violence. “Then he summoned and detained me, for no reason, other than being Haitham’s brother.”[49]

The lack of checks on governors’ powers to administratively detain persons led to at least one case of mistaken identity among the detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch. In June 2007 the district administrator of ‘Ain al-Basha, in Salt governorate, ordered Hani Shakir, a bus driver, detained because passengers had complained of the driver’s conduct. The district manager summoned him two months after the complaint, mistakenly—Shakir told Human Rights Watch—because he worked the day shift, and the complaint was against the driver of the night shift. Shakir said that he even met the district manager, but was unable to make his case. “He sent me down to a cell, and later I learned that I had been arrested administratively. Then I was sent to Salt prison,” Shakir said.[50]

Another case of abuse of power involved Zayid Khalid, 40, who admitted to having three previous convictions for writing “bad checks.” He said, “On July 20, [2007] police had come for my brother, who’s wanted for security reasons. Instead, they arrested me, saying it was for ‘resisting the police,’ and the governor of Mafraq detained me administratively.”[51] (Khalid’s case is also featured in Chapter VIIII, “Due Process Violations.”)

In a further case, the district administrator (mutasarrif) held an innocent person hostage to bring about the surrender of a wanted relative. In this instance, the judiciary held the district administrator accountable for his unlawful actions. The Mafraq Conciliation Court in 2005 found the district administrator of Mafraq guilty of unlawfully depriving a young lawyer of his liberty in December 2003 and sentenced the administrator to three months in prison. The mutasarrif was looking for the lawyer’s father, against whom there was a complaint. Unable to reach the father, however, he detained the lawyer for one day and imposed a monetary guarantee on him.[52] Lawyer Ahmad ‘Uthman, who represented the detained lawyer, told Human Rights Watch that the High Court of Justice reviewed and canceled the order of administrative detention, but that the mutasarrif’s refusal to release the lawyer led to criminal action.[53] The sentence of one month in prison against the mutasarrif was later exchanged for a fine in line with Jordan’s law that allows such exchanges for prison sentences of under three months. The mutasarrif was also sentenced to personally pay 1,000 dinars in compensation to the jailed lawyer.[54]

Crime Prevention or Social Policy?

The Crime Prevention Law lists three broad situations that may justify placing a person under administrative detention. Two of these situations appear designed to prevent actual crime: the arrest and detention of a person “about to commit a crime,” and the detention of “habitual” thieves. According to interviews with detainees and lawyers and a review of court documents, however, Jordanian governors mostly invoke the third justification for administration, namely, detention of persons who might “constitute a danger to the people.”

This third legal basis for administrative detention is exceedingly vague. It is clear from the persons governors have detained that the governors are not solely concerned with the safety of others or of private or public property. Rather, governors also detain persons simply for what they consider to be offensive, disruptive, or immoral behavior. Governors arrest women for eloping, running away from home, or engaging in other perceived immoral behavior. Men involved in brawls, alleged drunks, those suspected of prostitution, street vending, or begging, but whose perceived antisocial behavior did not rise to the level of crimes, also face protracted administrative detention. The ease with which governors can administratively detain persons without judicial oversight has allowed them to engage in social policing, removing unwanted persons from public sight, without subjecting them or those suspected of criminal offenses to the criminal justice system.

“Suspect” women

At the time of Human Rights Watch’s visit, 73 women (Jordanians and foreigners) were being held in administrative detention for purposes other than protective custody, out of a total female prison population of 248.[55]

Jordanian authorities administratively detained Najla A., 23, for trying to marry a non-Jordanian. She had served a three-month criminal sentence for having extramarital sex with an Egyptian man with whom she had been in a relationship for four years. Najla told Human Rights Watch, “Our custom is that no woman marries a foreigner. I told my parents that I wanted to marry him but they refused. We tried to get married anyway but we couldn’t, so we made a mistake. My family found out and they notified the police.” Although a judge ordered her released, police transferred her to the governor of Karak, who detained her administratively.[56]

In another case, the governor of Amman detained a non-Jordanian woman and her daughter after her son eloped abroad with a Jordanian girl. When Human Rights Watch met Huda B., a 41-year-old school teacher, she had been detained for eight days with her teenage daughter, who was under the age of 18 at the time. The mother of the Jordanian girl who had eloped with Huda B.’s son had complained to the police and the governor’s office, claiming that Huda B. and her daughter had helped coordinate the couple’s plan to secretly marry in Pakistan. Police officers brought Huda B. and her daughter to the governor of Amman on October 16, 2007. She told Human Rights Watch on October 23,

They said I would be there for only 10 minutes. The girl’s mother was there talking to the governor. He said “Bring your son [back to Jordan] now.” I told him that I couldn’t bring him from Pakistan and that they’re happy now. He said, “This is our girl, our land, our pride.” He wouldn’t let me talk with him alone. He told me he was going to detain me. He told me that my son has to come [back to Jordan]. That’s the only way out. He phoned my son and told him that if he doesn’t return [from Pakistan], he’ll put our whole family in jail.[57]

The governor detained Huda B. by administrative order and transferred her the next day to Juwaida women’s prison in handcuffs. His office then summoned Huda B.’s daughter for questioning and detained her at Juwaida as well. Huda B. told Human Rights Watch that the governor refused to accept guarantees that her husband’s brother posted on their behalf.

When Human Rights Watch visited Juwaida women’s prison the following week, Huda B. and her daughter had been released after her son and his Jordanian wife, Samah R., had returned to Jordan. The governor then detained Samah R., a dual Jordanian- American national, until she agreed to divorce her husband and return to her family’s home. Samah R. described her treatment by the police during the investigation process:

There was lots of yelling and disrespectful language. They took my things and told me to stand against the wall. They threw all my things on the floor. They wanted to show me that I was nothing.

She went on to recount her experience at the governor’s office:

I met the governor on Wednesday. He was so mean. He spoke to me in a vulgar way with his assistant. It was as if I killed his mother. He talked to me like he wanted to discipline me. He said, “Didn’t you do something wrong? Nothing happened between you? Are you at risk from your family? No Jordanian man would ever do this, would ever agree to this kind of theft. If you were respectful, you wouldn’t have done this.” But I didn’t do anything wrong. He kept talking to me outside of the law. He wanted to teach me my religion. It was clear from the moment I walked in that he wanted to send me here.[58]

Governors have also detained women for other perceived breaches of morality. In three cases we learned about from interviewees, being alone or with a man at night was enough to raise suspicion, with grave consequences for the women. One night in October 2007, Rim D., 27, decided to walk to her sister’s apartment following an argument with her husband. A plainclothes officer stopped her and asked why she was out by herself so late in the evening. “I called my husband and begged him to come get me but he refused,” she said. The officer took her to the governorate. She was transferred to the police station (nazhzhara) where she spent two nights until the governor’s office set a guarantee of 20,000 dinars (US$28,000) for her release. Police officers then brought her to Juwaida women’s prison, where she had been detained for seven days at the time of Human Rights Watch’s visit. She told Human Rights Watch, “They didn’t tell me how long I would be here. What if no one comes to pick me up? What happens then? If no one comes to take custody of me, I may be here forever, right?”[59]

Manal M., 25, was similarly detained simply for being in the company of a Saudi man. She told Human Rights Watch that officers arrested her in his home five days prior to our prison visit in October 2007. She said that she had previously been married to a Saudi and was visiting a friend in order to ask him to purchase some things for her mother from Saudi Arabia.[60]

Human Rights Watch spoke to two other young women, Lina M., 19, and Uhaila B., 18, who had been arrested in Amman together days before we met them in October 2007. Lina M. said that a friend had set them up with a Saudi man, who offered them a substantial sum of money to spend the evening with him. “We know we made a mistake but [our friend] deceived us,” she said.[61] Police officers arrested her and Uhaila B. at the hotel, but brought them to the governor, not the prosecutor. There, they separately spoke to the governor’s assistant. Lina B. recounted,

We told him to have mercy on us. He said we would be detained on a 20,000 dinars guarantee. It’s too much. My father has no money. He used to be a taxi driver but now he’s old and unemployed.[62]

Lina M. and Uhaila B. were still in detention when Human Rights Watch visited them. “We don’t know what’s going to happen to us. We’ve sent letters to the governor,” they said.[63]

“Loutish” men

Governors detain men for different types of behavior they consider offensive. Altercations are the most common cause of administrative detention, but other cases include instances of street vending and alleged drunkenness.

Yasir Rawwad, 33, told Human Rights Watch that he had no prior criminal record, but that he had already been detained for 37 days at the time of our visit. He said he had been in a fight with another man, and that the governor of Ma’an detained him administratively. Rawwad, who is married and has five children, said he desperately wanted to see his family, but that they hadn’t come to visit him, and he did not know if or when he would be released.[64]

An official in the Amman governorate administratively detained ‘Anbar Muhammad, 27, for street vending and alleged drunkenness. Muhammad is illiterate, and said the problem started when he could not produce an identity document. He told Human Rights Watch,

I was arrested last Wednesday, one week ago, at 4:30 p.m. I sell Kleenex at traffic lights. I was at the Middle East circle [in Amman] when the police came. They wanted to see an ID, but I didn’t have one, so they arrested me. Then they took me to the forensic doctor, on suspicion of drunkenness. But the exam showed nothing.[65]

The governor of Amman detained, by administrative order, at least four men whom police had arrested on suspicion of prostitution on October 22, 2007.[66]