14 people arrested in tobacco case by Wednesday

AMMAN — The number of people arrested in the tobacco case has reached 14 so far, a security source said on Wednesday.

The source told the Jordan News Agency, Petra, that the number includes those who were arrested earlier on Wednesday. 

On Monday, Minister of State for Media Affairs Jumana Ghunaimat announced that arrest warrants had been issued for 30 suspects who are allegedly involved in the case of illegal production, tobacco smuggling and international brands forging.

She was quoted as saying on Wednesday that eight of these were abroad and one was deceased. 

Citizens taking to social media, as well as MPs, demanded that businessman Awni Mutee, the main suspect in the case and the alleged owner of a tobacco factory, be brought back from Lebanon, where he flew a day before the crackdown on suspected manufacturing facilities began on
July 12.

The public grilled the government over the way and timing of his “escape” from the Kingdom.

The case was initially referred to the prosecution office at the Jordan Customs Department (JCD), where the prosecutor general, according to a government statement, found that some of the crimes involved fall under their jurisdiction of State Security Court, and in the final opinion decided that the JCD court lacks jurisdiction, especially since the details of the tobacco case are “interlaced”.