|
Human Rights Watch criticizes Jordan for arresting al-Zarqawi family visitors
 Human Rights Watch criticized Jordan's arrest of four legislators who visited the family of slain terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, calling it a violation of freedom of expression. "Expressing condolences to the family of a dead man, however murderous he might be, is not a crime," Sarah Leah Whitson, director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division, said in a statement Saturday. The legislators, members of Jordan's largest opposition group, visited al-Zarqawi's family home in Zarqa, 27 kilometres northeast of Amman, on June 9, two days after the "al-Qaida in Iraq" leader was killed in a U.S. air strike north of Baghdad. One of the legislators, Mohammed Abu Fares, described al-Zarqawi as a "martyr." Abu Fares and three others - Jaafar al-Hourani, Ali Abu Sukkar and Ibrahim al-Mashwakhi - were arrested two days later and charged with "instigating sectarian strike" and "fuelling national discord." They remain jailed, serving 15-day detention orders. Posted by: Fred 2006-06-19 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=156566 |