• On Wednesday, Jordan’s state security court said that it had sentenced four of the 16 defendants to 20-year jail terms and unspecified fines

AMMAN: A Jordanian court sentenced four people to 20 years in prison on Wednesday over plans to “target national security,” in a case linked to the recently outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Earlier in April, the kingdom’s intelligence service announced it had arrested 16 suspects and “foiled plans aimed at targeting national security, sowing chaos and sabotaging within Jordan.”

Jordan then announced last week that it was banning the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Islamist movement, accusing it of manufacturing and stockpiling weapons and planning to destabilize the kingdom.

On Wednesday, Jordan’s state security court said in a statement that it had sentenced four of the 16 defendants to 20-year jail terms and unspecified fines.

The four were convicted of “possession of explosives, weapons and ammunition with the intent to use them illegally and commit acts that would disrupt public order and threaten social safety and security, in violation of the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Law,” it said.

The statement did not specify whether they were members of the Muslim Brotherhood, but state television had previously broadcast what it described as confessions from three of the 16 suspects admitting they were members of the Islamist group.

The Brotherhood later issued a statement distancing itself from the individuals and saying they acted on their own motives.

Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya announced on April 23 that the government had decided to “ban all activities of the so-called Muslim Brotherhood and to consider any activity (carried out by it) a violation of the provisions of the law.”

The Muslim Brotherhood has continued to operate in Jordan despite a ruling by the country’s top court dissolving it in 2020, with authorities turning a blind eye to its activities.

AFP