You are here

Two Jordanians briefly detained in Ivory Coast over dispute — ministry

By Dana Al Emam - Dec 20,2014 - Last updated at Dec 20,2014

AMMAN — Two Jordanian businessmen working in Ivory Coast were recently released from official custody after a financial dispute, said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ashraf Khasawneh.

The business partners had a disagreement over money, which led them to file legal complaints against each other with Ivorian authorities, Khasawneh told The Jordan Times on Saturday in a phone interview.

“Ivorian authorities kept the two Jordanians in custody for three days for investigation and then released them,” he said.

The Jordanian consul in Ivory Coast is currently working to return the men’s passports, after they were taken from them upon their arrest. 

“It was not a kidnapping case,” Khasawneh noted, contrary to the remarks of one of the businessmen, who told Ammonnews, in a story published Saturday on their website, that he and his colleague were kidnapped by strangers.

The businessman claimed that an anonymous group took him and his business partner from the airport upon their arrival in Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast, to a farm.

“We were put under guard for three days, but we did not know if we were kidnapped or arrested as our kidnappers did not request a ransom,” Ammonnews quoted the businessman, a former peacekeeper in Ivory Coast, as saying.

The website did not disclose the man’s name or the exact date of the incident, and the Foreign Ministry did not provide these details.

After the two Jordanians were released, they went to their shop and found it empty of cosmetics and beauty products worth JD100,000, the businessman said.

He confirmed that he and his partner are waiting for their passports to be returned in order to come back to Jordan.

up
28 users have voted.


Newsletter

Get top stories and blog posts emailed to you each day.

PDF