Police chief sets new, stricter rules for detention centres

AMMAN — Public Security Department (PSD) Director Maj. Gen. Fadel Hmoud issued on Monday two “important” circulars concerning strict control over temporary detention centres to prevent any kind of violation or abuse against the detainees or infringement of their rights, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

Hmoud stressed during the first circular that the procedures for investigating complainants must be within the legal framework and away from the traditional methods of investigation that carry verbal and physical abuse. Such methods, he said, “render all investigation procedures null and void” from a legal perspective and harm the police’s reputation.

He warned that the PSD’s prosecutors would take legal action against violators, “even if no official complaint was filed” in the case in question.   

The other circular included 24/7 monitoring procedures for all temporary detention centres, announcing that the PSD’s judicial director and judges were instructed to inspect confinement facilities and detention centres everywhere and to examine arrest warrants, in addition to following up on any complaints filed by anyone inside the confinement facilities and detention centres at any time of the day, except cases reported from inmates at correctional and rehabilitation facilities.

The instructions also included assigning general prosecutors serving at all police units to monitor the confinement facilities and detention centres within these units, and to forward all observations, reports, complaints and violations directly to the PSD director.

Earlier this month, Hmoud ordered the arrest of five detectives for allegedly torturing a suspect to death in Amman and a probe was opened, triggering a public outrage and action by activists. 

Hmoud said on Saturday that the practices of beatings, torture and verbal and physical abuse “are not in our policing, social or moral dictionaries”, adding: “No citizen should be abused under any circumstances; the law is the only supreme and ruling power on the relationship between the PSD forces and citizens.”

He made the remarks during a meeting with officials of the Criminal Investigation Department, with which the five suspects are affiliated.