Minister pledges to resolve issue of Ramtha detainees by Sunday

AMMAN — Interior Minister Salameh Hammad has pledged to resolve the issue of detainees arrested in the context of Ramtha’s weekend events by Sunday, MP Khaled Abu Hassan told Al Rai on Thursday.

Sixteen youth from Ramtha have been arrested on charges of illegal assembly, obstruction of justice and online publications in the aftermath of small-scale rioting in the northern border town over the weekend in protest of a Cabinet decision to enforce tighter regulations on the Jaber-Nasib border crossing between Jordan and Syria.

Abu Hassan has met with Hammad to urge him to resolve the issue of the 16 detained youth, among which are high school students, he said.

On Wednesday, a ban on entry to Syria through the Jaber-Nasib border crossing that had been imposed after the riots on 500 vehicles owned by “bahara” was lifted from 238 vehicles. 

“Bahara” is the Arabic term for sailors, used to describe drivers of vehicles carrying passengers to Syria, Iraq and other countries.

Following talks between Hammad and a committee formed from Ramtha dignitaries in the wake of the riots, the former pledged to lift the ban on the remaining vehicles and allow them to go back and forth through the recently reopened crossing, provided that drivers adhere to laws and regulations and apply the clauses mentioned in a memorandum of understanding agreed upon with Ramtha dignitaries.

The government specified last Friday a cigarettes allowance for arriving passengers of one carton, containing 10 packs with 200 cigarettes, instead of two cartons.

To curb cigarette smuggling primarily through the Jaber crossing, the decision also expanded the jurisdiction of customs personnel and security to include the no-man’s land between Jordan and Syria, entitling them to perform initial inspections on travellers before they enter the customs zone.

The decision also labels as “smuggling” any involvement in the possession of more than one box of cigarettes, containing 10 packs with 200 cigarettes, and stipulates applying strict legal procedures, including the seizure of vehicles containing extra boxes.

The recent decisions sparked outrage among some of Ramtha’s residents, a significant number of which work in passenger ferrying services.

Before the break-out of the crisis in Syria in 2011, a total of 1,200 passenger vehicles used to operate on the Ramtha-Daraa and Jaber-Nasib border crossings between Jordan and Syria.