Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordan's military tribunal on Thursday decided to release 11 young men who were arrested during a demonstration outside the Iraqi Embassy in Amman on Tuesday to protest embassy staff's beating of Jordanian activists during a recent event held in Amman.
The State Security Court (SSC) decided to release the detainees on bail after a group of lawyers met with Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour on Thursday, Aboudi Al-Awaysheh, an attorney of detainees, told Ammon News.
Head of the Jordanian Bar Association (JBA) Sameer Khirfan told Ammon News on Thursday that the association is following closely the case of the 11 detainees, especially after SSC retracted from a decision to release the detainees earlier on Wednesday.
SSC on Wednesday afternoon decided to release the detainees on bail, but retracted a few hours later.
Awaysheh told Ammon News that police refused to release the detainees despite obtaining release warrants.
Prison administration informed the detainees' families that the Military Public Attorney rejected the release warrants, according to the SSC's decision to detain them for 14 days pending investigation.
The detainees were arrested and referred to SSC over alleged charges of inciting riots that resulted in the injury of security personnel, police spokesperson Major Amer Sartawi said on Wednesday.
The arrests were made on Tuesday during a crowded protest in front of the Iraqi Embassy to protest the attacks allegedly perpetrated by Iraqi embassy staff and security guards of Iraqi Ambassador Jawad Abbas against a group of pan-Arab Ba'athist activists, including several lawyers, who stormed into an event held by the embassy last week to commemorate "mass graves during the Saddam era."
The protests were provoked by a video clip that went viral on the web showing Iraqi embassy cadre beating, kicking, and throwing metal chairs at the activists. The activists reportedly shouted slogans denouncing Iraqi president Nuri al-Maliki and defending Saddam Hussein.
The incident stirred major denunciation from various social and political groups, who called for expelling the Iraqi Ambassador and holding the staff accountable.
The Iraqi government on Tuesday officially apologized to Jordan for the incident.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari expressed regret over the the incident in a phone conversation with his Jordanian counterpart, FM Nasser Judeh, citing that Iraqi authorities launched an investigation into the incident.