Ammon News - JPRC defendants released from Juweideh on bail

AMMONNEWS - The Public Prosecutor released former chairman of the Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company (JPRC) Adel Qudah, former JPRC director general Ahmad Rifai, the prime minister’s economic adviser, Mohammad Rawashdeh, and business tycoon Khaled Shahin from Juweideh prison on bail Thursday afternoon, an informed source told 'Ammon News.'

The case against all four suspected of bribery and public office exploitation was tranferred to the State Security Court under directives of Prime Minister Samir Rifai since the case relates to economic security of the state.

Qudah, Rifai, Rawashdeh and Shahin were detained Wednesday afternoon by orders of the Public Prosecutor of the Anti-Corruption Commission Hassan Abdullat for 14 days in Juweideh prison pending investigation.

The Public Prosecutor had implicated the four suspects with charges of bribery and public office exploitation in accordance with Articles 175 and 192 of the Penal Code.

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* First high-profile graft scandal in years

* Top businessman had been key government contractor

AMMAN (Reuters) The prosecutor ordered their arrest for 15 days pending an investigation of alleged graft and exploiting a public position for personal gain in a long-delayed project to attract strategic investors to undertake a $1.2 billion expansion of the refinery.

Detention of senior officials in Jordan is relatively rare and Qudah, a long-time top economic policy maker, is the first former minister to answer corruption charges.

Prime Minister Samir Rifai pledged to fight corruption when he assumed office last December. Critics accused his predecessor Nader Dahabi of failing to crack down hard enough on graft, which they blamed for scaring away investors.

Rifai's appointment by the monarch heralded a wider shakeup to ward off popular discontent over economic contraction after years of growth and allegations of rampant official corruption.

Until the latest arrests, moves to tackle graft in the administration and state-controlled companies had been limited to minor investigations and arrests.

The government formed a top ministerial committee to probe how a consortium allegedly linked to Shaheen sought a 15-year concession to undertake the refinery project after foreign investors had withdrawn.

Qudah was the government-appointed chairman of the refinery when Dahabi's cabinet granted the refinery last October an exclusivity deal to pursue suitable investors. Shaheen, one of the country's wealthiest men, had been for over a decade the government's contractor of choice for major security projects.

Companies associated with Luxembourg-registered Shaheen Business and Investment Group (SBIG) undertook the construction of a U.S.-funded police academy that has trained Iraqi and Palestinian police.

Shaheen's family concern also partnered with senior goverment agencies to sell Iraqi oil in the months preceding the fall of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in 2003. (Writing by Suleiman al-Khalidi; editing by Andrew Roche)