Jordan police arrest ex-top aide, royal officials for security concerns

Jordanian police have arrested a former adviser to King Abdullah and others for security concerns.

According to the Petra state news agency, Bassem Awadallah, a long-time confidant of the king who later became minister of finance, and Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a former royal envoy, were detained along with other unnamed figures.

Petra reported on Saturday April 3, 2021, that “arrests of top officials close to royal family members are rare in Jordan”.

Awadallah, who was a driving force behind economic reforms before he resigned as chief of the royal court in 2008, has long faced stiff resistance from an old guard and an entrenched bureaucracy that flourished for years on government perks.

Jordan’s powerful intelligence agency, with a pervasive influence in public life, has played a bigger public role since the introduction of emergency laws at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic last year, which civic groups say violate civil and political rights.