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Jordan arrests several high-profile figures over alleged plot against King Abdullah II

Saturday, 03 April 2021 9:12 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 03 April 2021 9:12 PM ]

Jordanian King Abdullah II (Photo by AFP)

The government of Jordan has arrested a number of high-profile figures for an alleged plot against King Abdullah II.

Bassem Awadallah, a long-time confidante of King Abdullah II who later became minister of finance, and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a member of the royal family, are among those arrested on Saturday, according to Jordan’s state-run Petra news agency.

Awadallah had helped spearhead economic reforms before leaving as head of the royal court in 2008.

There were initial reports that Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, a former crown prince and the king’s half-brother, was also arrested, but Jordan’s army chief of staff denied the reports and said the prince has been to “stop some movements and activities that are being used to target Jordan’s security and stability.”

General Yousef Huneiti, the army chief of staff, said an investigation is still ongoing and its results will be made public “in a transparent and clear form”.

“No one is above the law and Jordan’s security and stability are above all,” he told the official Petra news agency.

Jordanian security forces had earlier arrested a former adviser to King Abdullah and others on “security-related” grounds, Petra reported.

It’s not usual to see the arrests of top officials and royal family members in Jordan, a normally stable Arab kingdom which borders Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

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King Abdullah II has ruled Jordan since the 1999 death of his father, King Hussein, who ruled the country for close to a half-century.

Jordan’s economy has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic. With a population of around 10 million, the country also hosts more than 600,000 Syrian refugees.

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