JIACC detains 11 on corruption charges

AMMAN — The prosecutor general of the Jordan Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission (JIACC) on Thursday ordered the detention of 11 people on corruption charges.

An official from the JIACC said that six people were ordered to be detained for 15 days at Juweideh Correctional and Rehabilitation Centre pending investigations into bribery and forgery violations related to the import of garlic and orange shipments that had failed laboratory examinations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The detainees included a former director of plant laboratories affiliated with one of the ministries, an agricultural specialist at a customs department and an employee in a ministry laboratory. The remaining three detainees were the owners of thecompany that imported the shipments and a customs broker, according to Petra.

The prosecutor also ordered the detention of three others for 15 days in Balqa for suspected abuse of position. The detainees were suspected of having arranged with the owner of a gas station to fill Zarqa Hospital’s diesel tanks with an amount of diesel estimated at JD600,000 from 2015-2017, Petra reported, adding that the amount was later found to be false.

Two other suspects were also detained, including an engineer working at the Northern Badia Directorate of Agriculture, on charges of forgery and fraud related to issuing production certificates of wheat and barley.