Jordan arrests Toujan al-Faisal for 'dishonoring dignity of the state'
Jordan, Politics, 3/18/2002

The Attorney General of the Jordanian state security Col. Muhannad Hijazi had ordered the arrest of Mrs Toujan Faisal, former member of the Jordanian parliament for 15 days for investigations after he addressed to her declaring statements that dishonor the reputation of the state of Jordan and defaming its people.

Al-Faisal who was arrested on Saturday noon was jailed in al-Jweida prison to the south of Amman in order to continue investigating her for the said accusation and if she will be found guilty she will be jailed for three years.

A daughter for Toujan said that her mother had recently returned back from Iraq and that she was arrested on Saturday from her house in the west part of Amman.

Well-informed sources said in this respect that the former parliament member made statements which were considered insulting to Jordan in an interview with one of Arab satellite stations during which she accused the Jordanian judiciary of being unjust.

She had also an article in a Arab Times in which she accused the government of Ali Abu al-Ragheb of recently doubling the cost of car insurance, for serving personal gains and interests. The said article on 3-6-2002 was a sort of an open message to the Jordanian King Abdullah II, in which she accused the prime minister of sealing the public assets by various means by imposing several amendments on the income tax law, besides increasing indirect and direct fees and taxes on citizens and a recession in public services.

She called on the Jordanian Monarch to fire Abu al-Ragheb of fears of a mass uprising similar to that of 1989 in Southern Jordan, especially as the economic conditions of citizens have become worse than it were at that time, as she said.

News reports indicated several moves from several Jordanian figures in order to defend the former Parliamentarian Toujan al-Faisal and to request the court to take her out of the prison by a guarantee until he case will be considered.

Worthy mentioning that Toujan al-Faisal ( in her 50s ) was elected member in the Jordanian Parliament between 1993- 1997 to be then the first Jordanian woman to have a seat at the Parliament.

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