(RSF/IFEX) – On 27 December 2002, RSF protested the arrest of Hisham Bustani, a rights activist who denounced conditions at Jweidah Prison, near Amman, in the latest issue of the magazine “Al-Adab”, published in Lebanon. The November-December edition of the magazine has been banned in Jordan and Kuwait. Bustani was arrested on 24 December and […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 27 December 2002, RSF protested the arrest of Hisham Bustani, a rights activist who denounced conditions at Jweidah Prison, near Amman, in the latest issue of the magazine “Al-Adab”, published in Lebanon. The November-December edition of the magazine has been banned in Jordan and Kuwait.
Bustani was arrested on 24 December and is reportedly being held at Jweidah Prison. The article, entitled “Mechanism of Oppression: the Jweidah Prison case”, was based on his five-day imprisonment at Jweidah a few months ago.
“The jail is becoming notorious for the number of prisoners of conscience detained there,” said RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard in a letter to Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abu Al-Ragheb. RSF called for Bustani’s immediate release and an end to the ban on the magazine that contributes to the Jordanian people’s right to be informed.
Bustani is a member of the Union of Professional Associations, which campaigns against normalising relations with Israel and was outlawed by the Jordanian government in 2002. The November-December issue of “Al-Adab”, a literary magazine, mainly deals with censorship in Egypt.
