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AMMAN — Security services on Thursday arrested two suspects for robbing two pharmacies in Amman, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. According to a security source, the two suspects, who were reportedly armed, entered pharmacies in Shmeisani and Marj Al Hamam with their faces covered before threatening the employees and fleeing the scene in their vehicle with the money stolen.

The source added that the suspects strongly resisted public security personnel upon arrest, causing injuries to a police officer.

The source added that the two suspects were also convicted in two previous cases, the robbery of a supermarket and the robbery of a guest-worker.

Director of Public Security Department Maj. Gen. Ahmad Faqih said the police personnel who arrested the suspects will be promoted to higher ranks.

AMMAN — Jordan is in a dire need of joint agreements to protect the rights of expatriate workers, according to a recent study by Director of Tamkeen Fields for Aid Linda Al Kalash, where the researcher urged the Kingdom to adopt the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. 

The Ministry of Labour preferred not to comment on the recommendations, noting that “the Labour Law is now being discussed at the Lower House, and Jordan’s adoption of any agreement should pass through the representatives”.

“The government should be aware of the benefits that this adoption would bring to both Jordanian workers outside the Kingdom and expatriate workers based in Jordan,” Kalash told The Jordan Times, stressing that “migrants and refugees constitute around a third of the Kingdom’s population, and this issue should be considered as Jordan goes through its Universal Periodic Review this year”.

The study called for the review of the Labour Law and other concerned regulations to limit the employer’s authority so that migrant workers are granted the right to resign voluntarily and to choose a different employer.

In addition, the study recommended the implementation of limitations on administrative detention and deportation of expatriate workers, calling for the employees’ right to file grievance or litigation claims and have residence overstay fees revised. 

“The Residency and Foreigner Affairs Law is unfair to migrant workers,” the study said, noting that “the ministry’s authority to deport workers under the recommendations of the Directorate of Public Security violates the employees’ right to grievance”.

“The fines imposed on the worker due to the lack of a residence permit are also a violation, especially considering that the Labour Law makes the employer responsible for the issuance of the work permit rather than the worker,” the study continued. 

In this regard, the study recommended the search for alternative legal solutions aimed at preventing the deportation of migrant workers, in addition to the provision of translation services for non-Arabic speakers in court and the acceleration of the slow pace of litigation. 

“Prolonged litigation processes and language barriers hinder the workers’ access to justice,” the study said, pointing out that “most of them are forced to leave Jordan before receiving an adequate and fair compensation for the damage caused to them”.

Regarding the freedom of association, the study recommended the adoption of the International Labour Organisation Convention on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise (No. 87 of 1948), the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention (No. 98 of 1949), and the Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers (No. 189 of 2011). 

According to Kalash, “the current legal framework does not allow migrants to have assets in associations, and while expatriate workers have the right to involve in trade unions, they have no freedom to vote or have assets in them”.

AMMAN — Irbid Greater Municipality on Saturday announced that 100 cheques worth JD377,000 have been stolen, the Jordan News Agency, Petra reported.

The cheques were stolen from safes of the municipality's offices at the vegetable central market.

No cash was stolen, according to Petra.. Irbid mayor called on residents, institutions and banks not to accept cheques endorsed by the municipality. Police said they opened an investigation into the case. 

AMMAN — The Social Development Ministry on Saturday presented 35 underprivileged families with keys of new housing units out of 94 in the northern, southern and central regions, the Jordan News Agency, Petra reported.

During the ceremony, Social Development Minister Hala Lattouf said that the ministry is working on enhancing its maintenance and building programme of underprivileged families' homes. Since its launch in 2002, 1,700 families have benefited from the programme, she added.

Jerash Governor Raed Adwan said that the government is keen on expanding its services through the Social Development Ministry in cooperation with charities, focusing on its production projects that affect people's lives. Lattouf listened to demands of the families who received the keys of their houses.

AMMAN — The Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO) on Saturday finished the first stage of distributing humanitarian aid to Jerusalem people, as part of a campaign it launched last year in cooperation with Hayat FM.

Rajab Zubeidah, a counsellor at JHCO, said that an organisation delegation visited East Jerusalem and bought items from the local market, before distributing them to underprivileged families in cooperation with the Jerusalem Zakat committee, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. He noted that the assistance included heaters, blankets and food parcels.

Also on Saturday, JHCO, in cooperation with the Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army, dispatched a humanitarian aid convoy to the Gaza Strip. The four-truck aid convoy, a donation from the Baitulmaal USA / Jordan's office, included food parcels and blankets, which will be delivered to the Jordan field hospital for distributing to beneficiaries in the enclave, Petra reported.

AMMAN — The government has put in place more monitoring measures to prevent forest crimes, including the use of drones and surveillance cameras, Agriculture Minister Khalid Hneifat has said.

In an interview with Jordan TV’s 60 minutes programme, Hneifat added assaults on forests decreased by 30 per cent in 2017 compared with 2016. “This means the ministry has prevented 70 per cent of assaults on forests.”

The minister also said the agriculture sector has come first in the current prices index, achieving 16.5 per cent, 5.5 per cent and 9.7 per cent in the first, second and third quarters of 2017 respectively. 

Hneifat said that the ministry has taken other measures to ensure food safety including the establishment of labs to test locally produced and imported products.

DEAD SEA — Safeguarding the rights of children, women and persons with disabilities was among the recommendations that activists demanded to be included in the Jordan's Universal Periodic Review 2018, to be presented in Geneva in November.

The demand came during a two-day workshop on the 3rd Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Jordan which witnessed the attendance of legal experts, stakeholders, civil society organisations, and national and international human rights institutions.

The workshop, which was held in the Dead Sea area, was organised by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in Amman and UPR Info, Geneva, Switzerland.

Other recommendations included calls for gender equality in wages, allowing foreign workers to join labour unions, moving torture cases to be tried in civilian courts rather than police courts and training law enforcement officials on human rights values and practices.

The participants also called for the right of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians to pass on their citizenship to their spouses and children.

Currently, only Jordanian men are allowed to pass the Jordanian citizenship to their children and foreign wives.

The aim of the workshop was to support the Jordanian civil society with the technical knowledge and tools so that they can write effective and compelling reports from the civil society’s perspective, which will influence the recommendations of the state in Geneva in November, according to the organisers.

UPR Info programme manager, Aoife Hegarty, said that all recommendations will be reviewed because “our aim is to help in refining the recommendations and ensuring they are smart and in accordance with UN standards”.

"Smart" means that they are specific, achievable, measurable, relevant and time bound, Hegarty explained.

“This is an opportunity for the civil society to feed into the report and provide information on the human rights situation in Jordan,” she told The Jordan Times.

The next step, Hegarty added, will be to prepare the report and meet with government entities to provide them with feedback, as they are currently preparing the national report.

“As part of this process, the government should give the civil society the opportunity to feed into its report,” Hegarty explained.

She said other activities that will take place in Jordan will focus on “advocacy from the civil society perspective so that we can share our information with the diplomatic community in a compelling way”.

FES programme officer, Maha Qashou, said that “we are focusing on the civil society and its report on human rights from 2013 to 2018”.

“The government will meet with the local organisations to discuss the recommendations and decide to either endorse or postpone it,” Qashou explained.

"The idea is to unite the efforts and voices of local organisations working on human rights issues in Jordan to come up with a strong report to be submitted in Geneva later this year,” Qashou told The Jordan Times. 

UPR is a unique mechanism of the Human Rights Council aimed at improving the human rights situation on the ground of each of the 193 UN member states, according to its website.

Under this mechanism, the human rights situation of each UN member state is reviewed every five years. 

AMMAN — Authorities on Saturday were questioning three brothers in connection with the stabbing death of their widowed sister in Irbid over the weekend, official sources said.

The victim, 40, and mother of four, was rushed to hospital suffering from multiple stab wounds to the stomach on Friday night, Police Spokesperson Lt. Col. Amer Sratawi said.

“The victim was admitted to hospital and was in a critical condition. On Saturday, she succumbed to her wounds and died in hospital,” Sartawi told The Jordan Times.

The police official told The Jordan Times that investigators are currently questioning the brothers to determine “if they are all involved in the stabbing incident”.

A senior judicial source told The Jordan Times that the Criminal Court prosecutor was notified by police about the incident.

“Criminal Court Prosecutor Qahtan Qawaqzeh was expected to start questioning the suspects Saturday evening,” the source said.

“We still do not have a clear motive behind the murder and we are hopeful that further investigation by Qawaqzeh and other law enforcement officials will give us some answers,” the judicial source told The Jordan Times.

A postmortem conducted by a team of pathologists at the Irbid National Institute of Forensic Medicine indicated that the victim received seven stab wounds to her chest and stomach, a senior medical source said.

“The cause of death was a fatal stab wound that penetrated the air pipes and caused internal bleeding,” the senior medical source told The Jordan Times.

The three suspects were ordered detained at a correctional and rehabilitation facility for 15 days pending further investigation, the judicial source added.

“Qawaqzeh is also expected to summon the victim’s family members and other witnesses to determine the cause and learn more about the murder’s circumstances before levelling any charges,” the source concluded.

NEW YORK - A U.S. appeals court has thrown out a 2014 jury verdict finding Arab Bank Plc liable for knowingly supporting militant attacks in Israel linked to Hamas, a decision that triggers a settlement agreement with hundreds of plaintiffs.

Friday’s decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ends 13-1/2 years of litigation over Arab Bank’s liability, which the Jordanian lender has disputed, for 24 attacks in and around Israel in the early 2000s.

The appeals court said jurors in Brooklyn were instructed incorrectly by the trial judge that under federal law, Arab Bank committed an “act of international terrorism” by knowingly providing material support to Hamas, which the Department of State designated in 1997 as a foreign terrorist organization.

In August 2015, 11 months after the verdict, Arab Bank had reached a confidential settlement with 597 victims or relatives of victims of 22 of the attacks, pending the bank’s appeal of the verdict, court papers show.

Both sides agreed to forgo a retrial if the verdict were thrown out.

“The plaintiffs will receive meaningful and very substantial compensation for their injuries,” their lawyer, Gary Osen, said in an email. “Today’s decision doesn’t diminish the fact a jury found Arab Bank liable for knowingly supporting Hamas.”

Sarri Singer, injured in a 2003 Hamas-linked bombing of a bus in Jerusalem, said in a statement about Arab Bank: “Families hurt by them are going to get the help they need.”

In a statement, Arab Bank said “the district court’s errors at trial all but dictated an adverse outcome. The bank is pleased to put this case behind it.”

Arab Bank’s settlement averted a trial to determine damages for 16 “bellwether” plaintiffs, concerning three of the attacks. Had the verdict been affirmed, they would have been entitled to at least $100 million, Friday’s decision said.

The verdict had been the first in the United States holding a bank civilly liable for violating the Anti-Terrorism Act (“ATA”), which lets U.S. citizens seek damages from international terrorism.

Arab Bank was accused of handling transactions for Hamas, and routing money to charities that supported the group or families of suicide bombers.

In Friday’s decision, Circuit Judge Reena Raggi said a jury properly instructed on the law might have inferred that Arab Bank had been sufficiently “aware” of Hamas’ activities.

But she said “we cannot conclude that such evidence, as a matter of law,” shows that the bank knew it was “playing a role in violent or life‐endangering acts whose apparent intent was to intimidate or coerce civilians or to affect a government.” 

The trial judge, Brian Cogan, dismissed claims concerning two of the 24 attacks in 2015.

Congress’ passage in 2016 of the Justice Against Terrorism Act extended ATA liability to those who aid and abet acts of international terrorism.

AMMAN — His Majesty King Abdullah on Thursday held talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on bilateral ties and regional and international developments.

During bilateral talks, which were held at the PM House and were followed by an expanded meeting attended by senior officials on both sides, discussions covered means to advance cooperation in political, economic, commercial, military, security and cultural areas, a Royal Court statement said.

The two sides affirmed the deep, historical ties that Jordan and Pakistan share, as well as the importance of capitalising on available opportunities to strengthen economic cooperation and increase trade exchange, especially in the fields of mining and fertilisers.

Discussions also touched on opportunities to capitalise on Jordan’s strategic location as a gateway into US, European and African markets, due to the free trade agreements the Kingdom has signed with various countries.

The two sides underlined the tenth round of meetings of the Joint Jordanian-Pakistani Ministerial Committee, which will be held in Islamabad in March.

In addition, discussions addressed regional and international efforts to fight terrorism within a holistic approach to counter its threat to global peace and security.

King Abdullah reaffirmed Jordan’s appreciation of and support for Pakistan’s efforts to fight terrorism and extremism.

The King also stressed Jordan’s willingness to cooperate closely with Pakistan in this regard.

Turning to the Palestinian cause and Jerusalem, His Majesty stressed the importance of breaking the deadlock in the peace process, arriving at just and comprehensive peace based on the two-state solution, relevant UN resolutions and international law, and the Arab Peace Initiative, leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967, lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The King underlined that the issue of Jerusalem must be settled within the framework of a comprehensive solution that addresses all final status issues of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, urging the international community to shoulder its responsibilities to safeguard the rights of Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and Christians to the holy city, which, he said, is key to regional peace and stability.

Abbasi stressed the importance of the Hashemite Custodianship of Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, and Jordan’s major role in undertaking this responsibility, affirming Pakistan’s support for His Majesty’s position in this regard.

He expressed his country’s appreciation of Jordan’s stances, led by the King, on ensuring stability in the region, asserting Pakistan’s keenness to strengthen cooperation and coordination with Jordan in various fields.

Discussions also touched on UNRWA’s vital role and the need for the international community’s support to enable it to continue to provide education, health and relief services to refugees, as 5 million Palestinian refugees are registered with the UN.

The issue of Jammu and Kashmir was also discussed, highlighting the  importance of reaching a political solution to the issue with India, in accordance with international law and relevant UN resolutions, as such a solution is prone to bolster peace and stability in the region.

Moreover, discussions covered efforts to resolve crises in the Middle East politically.

Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Freihat, Director of the Office of His Majesty Jafar Hassan, and Jordan’s Ambassador to Pakistan Nawaf Saraireh attended the talks.

On the Pakistani side, Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Housing and Works Akram Khan Durrani and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Jordan Junaid Rehmat, as well as other senior officials, were in attendance.

His Majesty also attended an official dinner banquet hosted in his honour and in honour of the Jordanian delegation by Prime Minister Abbasi.

Earlier, the King was received by Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain and a number of senior officials and officers upon arrival in Islamabad.

His Majesty was also accorded an official welcoming ceremony at the PM House.

On the sidelines of the visit, Jordan and Pakistan signed an agreement in the field of civil protection and civil defence, and a memorandum of understanding on public works and housing.

Also in Islamabad, His Majesty met with the commander of the Pakistani armed forces, Qamar Javed Bajwa, over military affairs, the Royal Court said. The meeting, which was attended by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Freihat, also covered efforts to combat terrorism. 

The King arrived in the Pakistani capital from Abu Dhabi, where he met with the UAE leaders over bilateral ties and issues of mutual concern.

On a tweet, the King commented on the visit: “We take pride in the sisterly the UAE, with which we are bound by deep-rooted brotherly and historic ties. I was happy to meet my brother Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, who is exerting relentless efforts to advance his nation and people, rendering the Emirates an example to follow worldwide. Sheikh Mohammed is a brother to me and every Jordanian and an Arab leader we are proud of”.