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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| More on the Swaqa riot |
| 2006-03-02 |
| Prisoners loyal to Al Qaeda took a prison chief and six policemen hostage yesterday during riots at three Jordanian jails to stop the transfer of inmates convicted for killing a US diplomat, officials said. Sources said the inmates released their hostages after receiving promises they would not be punished. The head of Jweida prison, Colonel Saad Ajrami, was among those held hostage, deputy head of police Abdul Salam Al Ja’afra told state television. Security sources said the violence at the Swaqa, Jweida and Qafqafa prisons began after security forces went into one of the jails to transfer to another Jordanian jail two high-profile prisoners on death row for killing a US diplomat in Amman in 2002. The inmates feared the two were going to be executed. Security sources said the two had not been transferred but it was not known if this was because of the rioting. The prison clashes, which involved 150 inmates, were the most serious in Jordan in recent years. It was the first coordinated rioting by prisoners in Jordan, which has been facing growing activism. The three prisons are among eight jails holding more than 6,000 common criminals and political prisoners, many of whom belong to Al Qaeda and have been sentenced for attacks against Israeli, American and other Western targets. Security experts said the clashes underscored the prisoners’ high-level of coordination. Security sources said the inmates used smuggled mobile phones to organise the rioting between the three jails. The sources said anti-riot police units had already been on alert at the three jails after prisoners threatened to riot if the two inmates at Swaqa — Libyan Salem bin Suweid and Jordanian Yasser Freihat — were taken for execution. As soon as the paramilitary units moved into Swaqa, clashes erupted. Similar violence broke out at the two other jails almost simultaneously, an activist said. Hundreds of anti-riot police moved into the cells, using tear gas and plastic bullets to quell the unrest at the jails which hold some of Jordan’s most dangerous activists, including followers of Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi. Among the prisoners in Jweida are Azmi Jayousi, a Jordanian aide to Zarqawi, who was sentenced to death last month over his leading role in plotting chemical attacks in 2004. Police spokesman Major Raed Deajah said the hostages were seized when they went unarmed into a cell to negotiate with the prisoners. They were held for about eight hours. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |