The political prisoner and former head of the Jordanian municipality of Ma’an, Majed Al-Sharari, has been on hunger strike for 15 consecutive days in Marka prison, in protest against his continued detention.
Family sources affirmed that Eng. Majed Al-Sharari, who suffers from several health problems including diabetes, high blood pressure, and atherosclerosis, refused to meet with his family or lawyer.
Today, the Jordanian Public Prosecutor of the Military State Security Court refused the conditional release request submitted by his lawyer, Abdul Samie Mansour.
The Military State Security Court had earlier charged Al-Sharari of participating in unauthorised sit-ins, “undermining the political regime or inciting opposition to it” under Article (149) of the Penal Code, and being involved in various acts associated with ‘terrorist activities’ that harm national resources.”
Jordan has been downgraded from ‘obstructed’ to ‘repressed’ in a 2021 report by the CIVICUS Monitor, a global research collaboration that rates and tracks fundamental freedoms in 197 countries and territories.
According to the report, the suspension of the last remaining Teachers’ Association, internet shutdowns, and restrictions enforced on journalists, civil society and activists, have led to the downgrade.
For many years, Jordan was classified by Freedom House as a partly-free country. But as of 2021, Jordan’s classification fell back, and it was classified as not free.
