'Taxi driver takes passenger's ID for failing to pay JD0.75'

AMMAN — Police on Tuesday said they were investigating allegations that a taxi driver seized the identification card of a passenger who failed to pay him JD0.75.

A university student called the Public Security Department's radio station Amen FM complaining that a taxi driver seized her identification card because “she did not have the complete fair”, said Muqabalein Police Station Director Maj. Khaldoun Ghweiri.

“The student told the radio station that she took a taxi from Taj Mall to her university and only had two dinars,” the police official told The Jordan Times.

He added that the student claimed that she only had JD2 on her and “when the driver learnt that she did not have the exact fair he prevented her from leaving the taxi, so she offered to give him her identification card until she could repay him, and he took it.”

“The woman has not come forward to officially complain at the police station about the incident, and once she does we will summon the driver for questioning,” Ghweiri added.

Ahmad Abu Haidar, president of the Transport Services and Taxi Owners Union (TSTOU), said they plan to follow up on the case with the police.

“These are unacceptable behaviours and if the incident is true then the driver will be held accountable,” Abu Haidar told The Jordan Times.

Abu Haidar, who has been the president of the TSTOU since 1984, said the “union cannot take any disciplinary action against the driver and [its] role is only to follow up on the incident with the police”.