Al-Rawabdeh expected to be held innocent from corruption accusation

It is expected that the Jordanian parliamentary committee in charge of investigating corruption accusations addressed by independent parliament member Mahmoud al-Kharabeshah to Prime Minister Abdul Raouf al-Rawabdeh will announce that the latter is innocent.

The Jordanian daily al-Rai quoted well-informed Jordanian parliamentary sources as saying that the committee listened to witnesses and made sure of these investigations but has not yet reached anything that finds al-Rawabdeh guilty of what he was accused by al-Kharabeshah in his attempt to receive a bribe estimated at 15 million Jordanian dinars through his son Issam from an Arab investor, for facilitating measures of licensing for establishing a tourist village on the outskirts of Amman.

The paper added that the rapporteur of the investigation committee and its members went to the UAE and met with the investor, who stressed that the "document which speaks of Issam al-Rawabdeh's request for 15 million dinars to facilitate the licensing of the project is not true."

Last week al-Rawabdeh categorically denied these accusations and defied al-Kharabeshah to prove them. The Jordanian prime minister also vowed to resign if this accusation turned to be true and ask al-Kharabeshah to also resign if the opposite is proved.