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Ammon News - The State Security Court (SSC) on Wednesday handed down a 12-year prison sentence to a former deputy after finding him guilty of threatening the life of His Majesty the King, inciting national strife, and other serious charges, Jordan News Agency Petra reported.

In June 2021, the Lower House of Parliament voted to dismiss MP Osama Ajarmeh (Amman 5th Constituency) after he made inflammatory remarks deemed offensive to His Majesty the King. Shortly thereafter, he was arrested on a slew of serious charges following protests in his hometown of Na'ur, southwest of Amman.

The court also handed prison terms ranging from 7 to 8 years to other accomplices of the sacked MP. It is verdict, the SSC that it was proven that all of the convicts had committed acts that endanger the safety and security of society, foment strife, and manufactured flammable materials with the intent to use them illegally.

The court also said that it found the former deputy guilty of threatening the life of His Majesty the King, and of using narcotics. The court added in its verdict that the convicts, following the dismissal of Ajarmeh from parliament, plotted to incite the Jordanian public against the political regime, its institutions and against security agencies and called for public disobedience.

Also, the court said Ajarmeh used assemblies and protests he called for and organized to inflame strife, disturb public order and endanger societal safety and security. In one of the protests they organized, the SSC explained, the convicts incited those present against the Kingdom's political regime.

It added that Ajarmeh urged the protesters to disobey and rise against state agencies with force and violence, using inflammatory rhetoric intended to incite public discontent and hatred against state institutions.

To put their scheme into action, the court explained, the convicts, including the former MP, met in a farm and improvised Molotov cocktails using gasoline and burnt oil to carry out a terrorist act by blowing up a gendarmerie armored vehicle in the Na'ur area. However, SSC added, the scheme failed to materialize after security agencies learned of the terrorist plot and prevented it from happening.