‘Rot in prison’: Jordanians react to unprecedented sedition trial

Bassem Awadallah is the most senior government official in Jordan to ever appear in court on such charges.

Amman, Jordan – Many Jordanians reacted with satisfaction as an unprecedented trial got under way over an alleged plot by prominent figures to incite a rebellion against the long-serving government of King Abdullah II. Jordan’s former finance minister and chief of the Royal Hashemite Court, Bassem Awadallah, appeared in the State Security Court this week to face charges of sedition over his alleged role in conspiring with Prince Hamzah bin Al Hussein, the half-brother of King Abdullah, to destabilise the country and remove its longtime monarch. “God-willing Awadallah will rot in prison,” Ahmed, a 42-year-old Jordanian businessman who asked Al Jazeera to withhold his identity over security concerns, said at a cafe near Amman’s downtown district.