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Ammon News - by Hani Hazaimeh and Rana Husseini | The Jordan Times

AMMAN — Activists, politicians and lawyers have welcomed recent Royal directives to limit the jurisdiction of the State Security Court (SSC), expressing hopes that the court will eventually be abolished in the near future.

On September 1, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour announced that His Majesty King Abdullah directed the government to change the law governing the SSC to ensure that trials are in conformity with the Constitution, noting that the King wanted the court’s jurisdiction to be limited to the five grand crimes specified in the Constitution — treason, espionage, terrorism, drugs and money counterfeiting.

As for other state security-related cases, they will be examined by a fully civilian court, according to Ensour, who added that it was “a big and courageous reform step”.

Welcoming the King’s directives, Islamic Action Front Secretary General Hamzah Mansour said the step came “after the successive governments have failed to fulfil their duties to revisit the legislative environment to correspond to the Constitution”.

The constitutional amendment, which became effective in 2011, gave the government a period of three years to revisit several laws governing the political life in the country, Mansour told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

Mansour charged that “the government kept stalling without any significant action. The King’s recent step is highly appreciated and timely as it will push the government to speed up the reform process”.

Urging the government to respond to the King’s instructions, the Islamist leader said he hoped the government would consider suggesting an amendment to the Constitution that would abolish the SSC altogether, which he described as “unconstitutional and does not enjoy recognition by the international community”.

Within that scope, Mansour said the country as well as the region is going through harsh political developments that call on all components of society to be united and to join ranks in face of the challenges facing the Kingdom’s security and stability.

“We call on decision makers to reconsider cases looked into by the SSC concerning political activities and we hope that the authorities would end the detention of political activists once and for all,” he said.

Jordan Bar Association President Samir Khirfan agreed with Mansour, activists and lawyers who have for decades called for the abolition of the SSC.

“This is a step in the right direction and serves democracy in Jordan,” Khirfan told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

But he was quick to add that exceptional courts, including the SSC, should “be abolished eventually”.

“If we want to claim that we are a democratic country which respects human rights, then we should have an independent judiciary that looks into cases of all citizens at civilian courts,” Khirfan said.

Secretary General of the Centrist National Constitutional Party Ahmad Shannak said the King’s order emphasises his concern to boost and protect public freedoms and the freedom of expression.

Shannak, a former member of the National Dialogue Committee, said the decision represents an important development towards enforcing the concept of democracy and respect of the Constitution, which clearly states the limits of the SSC’s jurisdiction.

“This decision will also give a boost to the role of civil litigation in term of cases related to freedom of opinion. The King took side with the calls raised by several political parties and activists to try political activists before civil courts,” Shannak added.

Activists and politicians have repeatedly called for implementation of Article 101 of the Constitution, which was subject to change among amendments made to the basic law in 2011, and stipulates that “no civilian may be tried in a criminal case where all its judges are not civilian, the exception to that are the crimes of treason, espionage, terrorism, the crimes of drugs and currency forgery”.

Opposition groups have repeatedly protested against trying activists and political critics before the SSC’s mixed panels for charges that are not among the five mentioned above.

According to activist and Lawyer Eva Abu Halaweh, one of the most important offences under the SSC was the illegal assembly charge and was expected to be shifted to civil courts once the amendments were made.

Other offences that will be dropped as a result of the Royal directives, according to Abu Halaweh, include violations related to the guns and ammunitions and protection of state secrets and documents laws, as well as crimes committed against the state, crimes committed against the public safety and crimes related to civil aviation.

“It is definitely an important step in the right direction and we are always hopeful that one day the SSC will be abolished since we have civil courts that are capable of trying individuals for any offence without having to resort to exceptional courts,” Abu Halaweh stressed.