Shbeilat: I did not ask for pardon because I am innocent

Former Jordanian Engineers Union chairman Leith Shbeilat has refused the special pardon issued by King Hussein of Jordan several days earlier because he could not promise anyone that he will suspend his national activities, remarking about the guarantee advocated by the Jordanian vocational trade unions council, on the basis of which the king pardoned Shbeilat.

In a message he sent to the director of the prison where he is being held on Wednesday, Shbeilat said he was surprised by the news that he was pardoned in the day's newspapers, despite the fact he did not ask for it or ask anyone to ask for it on his behalf. Shbeilat added that there is "no need to repeat that I did not ask in previous times nor this time for any pardon for alleged crimes which I do not originally admit, since I have practiced my constitutional rights."

Shbeilat was sentenced by the state security court to nine months in prison under charges of provoking people against the Jordanian government during the Maan riots in February.