Closure of Jordan’s sedition trial leaves unanswered questions

Legal observers say Jordan lost an opportunity to build trust in society as the sedition trial was shrouded in secrecy.

The guilty verdict issued by Jordan’s State Security Court to a former finance minister and a minor royal over charges of sedition was met with muted reaction from Jordanians, even as it left many unanswered questions about the nature of a plot that was allegedly aimed at overthrowing the country’s longtime monarch. Bassem Awadallah, a former minister and Chief of the Royal Hashemite Court and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a distant relative of Jordan’s ruling family, were sentenced on Monday to 15 years in prison for conspiring with Prince Hamzah bin al-Hussein, the half-brother of Jordan’s King Abdullah, to destabilise the country which is a key US ally in the region. The charge sheet for the two men stated that they worked to promote Prince Hamzah as king, while inciting unrest among Jordan’s powerful tribes over economic grievances and mismanagement of the coronavirus.