Amman - Jordanian authorities Saturday prevented dozens of
human rights activists from visiting four prisoners transferred from
Israeli jails earlier this month to spend the rest of their sentence
terms at Jordanian prisons, an Islamic movement statement said.
The authorities at the Gafgafa jail, where the four prisoners are
held, 'today barred panels working in the human rights field from
visiting the four people, saying it has no instructions to allow
visitors other than close relatives' said the statement issued by the
Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan's largest political party.
The team included representatives for the freedoms committees at
the IAF and the country's trade unions as well as the Amman-based
Organization of the Arab Human Rights, the statement added.
The IAF Secretary General Zaki Bani Ershaid, who was among the
turned-back visitors, accused the government of 'losing the
opportunity to deal with its people in a civilized manner'.
'Insisting on dealing in martial manner with the visitors is set
to distort Jordan's reputation,' he said.
'The four captives are supposed to be honoured and released
because they are heroes who were defending their country,' he added.
The four prisoners - Sultan Ajlouni, Khalid abu Ghalioun, Amin
Sane and Salem Abu Ghalioun - were handed over by Israel to Jordan on
July 6 as a gesture of good will to spend the rest of their
imprisonment at Jordanian jails.
They were serving life sentences after Israeli courts found them
guilty of killing two Israeli soldiers in 1991.
Under the agreement reached in this respect between the two
governments, the four prisoners can be released after 18 months of
their transfer to Jordan or in case Israel freed prisoners jailed for
similar charges.
The four men are pressing demands to the authorities for treating
them 'not as ordinary prisoners', the daily al-Dustour reported
Saturday.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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