Last update - 00:00 30/01/2007
UN investigator says torture 'routine' in Jordan
By Reuters
A UN human rights investigator charged on Tuesday that torture is both widespread and routine in Jordan, especially to extract confessions from terror suspects, while security forces enjoy total impunity.
Manfred Nowak, United Nations special rapporteur for torture, called on the Jordanian government to investigate and prosecute all allegations of torture and ill-treatment and also make changes to domestic laws including the constitution.
'The practice of torture is widespread in Jordan, and in some places routine, namely the General Intelligence Directorate (GID), the Public Security Directorate's Criminal Investigation Department, as well as Al-Jafr Correction and Rehabilitation Center,' he said in a 38-page report.
Nowak was referring to Jordan's two top security prisons and to the desolate Jafr facility in the south. He called the latter 'a punishment center' which should be 'closed without delay' due to extremely harsh conditions and routine torture practices.
In December last year, King Abdullah ordered the Jafr prison to be closed. Jordanian security officials have denied any systematic violations of prisoners' rights.
Methods used in Jordan -- a U.S. ally that borders Israel, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia -- include beatings with truncheons, batons, electrical cables and broom handles, burning detainees with cigarettes and forcing them to hold painful positions, according to the UN investigator.
Humiliating treatment and insults were also common.
Nowak's report, based on interviews with more than 40 detainees and senior officials in Jordan, is to be examined by the UN Human Rights Council. The 47-member state forum opens its next four-week session in Geneva on March 12.
The Austrian law professor said that Jordan's domestic laws against torture were "totally meaningless" because the security services are 'effectively shielded from independent criminal prosecution and accountability.'
No Jordanian official had ever been prosecuted for alleged torture, Nowak said.